Warrior's Angel 3: By the Light of the Heavens
by Kiriona
Summary: NOW EDITING! If only I'd known what disasters waited for us as we sailed towards Babylon... The Prince and I are heading home for some R&R, but once again, we have somehow managed to involve ourselves in otherworldly plots. When will it end?
1. UPDATED AUTHORS NOTE!

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hey guys.

I've noticed a lot of hits on my traffic page, so I figured it would be best is I put a little note up on here to let everyone know what's happening to be fair to everyone.

If there's any new readers out there who just read this and went "KIRI, THIS MAKES NO DAMN SENSE." Well, I'm aware of that. I'm currently in an editing process and I'm trying to rewrite a lot of things, since I didn't really like how it was going the first time around. So my advice to all of you is to just wait around until I finish. I'm actually getting a lot done rather quickly, considering I'm currently in school. So far I have everything in the first two stories fixed except for the first two chapters of Warrior's Angel 2. Hopefully it will continue to be a quick process and I can actually finish the damn thing one day!

UPDATE!

I finally managed to kick that nasty writer's block of mine! Yay! I've been having the worst summer ever. Car accidents, and financial issues... It's all been horrible. Funny, though, the only thing that's stayed stable is my engagement! But I'm (hopefully) back on the ball now, so no more worries!

But until then, I'll try to keep you guys updated on my profile page. So stay tuned until then. K? I love you guys! So until next time… (Singing) So long! Farewell! Until we meet again…!


	2. Back to Normal

_Warrior's Angel 3: By the Light of the Heavens_

_Written by Kiriona_

Chapter 1

The journey to Babylon so far had been rather tense between the Prince and I. He hadn't spoken to me very much, other than calling me to help make dinner, or giving me instructions on how to sail the ship. He hardly even said 'good morning' or 'goodnight' to me! I knew exactly why, too.

Hey, all. Naomi Fox here one again, broadcasting live from a wooden ship out in the middle of the ocean. No doubt you all remember me, so welcome to the third chapter of my life, and let me tell you, the first two will seem like an overblown kiddy show after this one!

After the Prince and I left the Island of Time, we'd grabbed a ship from Kaileena's fleet (which was in surprisingly good condition) and set sail for Babylon. With the Dahaka gone and no urgent driving forces pushing us onward, we could both rest easy. Only problem was that during all that time, the Prince had fallen head over heels in love. With me. That's bad. It's one of the three most important laws that all Angels (excluding Renegades) have to follow no matter what the circumstances, that Angels are not allowed to have relationships anymore than simple friendship with anyone except fellow Angels for risk of tainting the bloodline.

The reason why he had hardly spoken a word to me since we left is because he confessed that he was in love with me and handed his heart to me on a silver platter. To be honest, I wasn't sure whether I loved him back in that way or not, but it didn't matter. For one thing, I already had a fiance. I wouldn't know who he was until I received confirmation, but my name was in the system already. Second, I wasn't about to break the law and have my head chopped off by the council for tainting the bloodline. I didn't have much choice but to reject him. He took it really hard…

But anyways, it was pretty much the middle of the night and I couldn't sleep, and it wouldn't have been so bad, except there was a shirtless, dark haired, battle worn Persian Prince on the opposite side of the room, just snoozing away peacefully. Well, at least he was peaceful tonight, and not having another nightmare. Even though it was all over and the Dahaka had no business with him anymore, he still had horrible, vivid dreams about being chased to his death. Often I would wake up and find him thrashing around aimlessly, yelling for help. I would always wake him up, and he would cling to me like a child to its mother, but once he calmed down, he would go back to not speaking to me and go back to sleep.

I sighed heavily, wondering what was going on in his mind now. Was he starting to have another nightmare and would end up flailing around again five minutes from now? Were the images in his mind pleasant? Was he even dreaming at all? Ironically, that question was quickly answered when the prince turned over in his sleep. There was a slight smile on his face; the first I'd seen since I left him heart broken on the Island.

"Naomi…" he whispered softly. I couldn't help but smile, too. He was dreaming about me. That was just so sweet, I couldn't help but be flattered. "…Naomi… love me harder… please…" … I blinked. Then my face turned bright red. That freaking pervert! I outta go over there and slap him awake!

…But still, an erotic dream was better than another nightmare to suffer through. That was something, at least. And I guess, since he couldn't have me in reality, he was at least entitled to have me in his dreams. Well, have fun, Princy.

I quietly pulled my blankets off and got to my feet. There was no way I was about to stick around and listen to Princy over there moan my name in ecstasy. I grabbed the copy of the Sherlock Holmes mystery I'd brought along from Kaileena's library and headed out to the deck. When you can't sleep, I learned that the best thing to do is grab a good book and read until you pass out.

On the topic of books, the prince still refused to let me see the stack of books he had taken from the Island fortress. I don't know why… what's there to hide about a few books? Well, I guess with someone like the Prince, secrets are just a way of life. Seriously, the man still refuses to tell me his name!

Anyway, my book still in hand, I opened my wings and flew up to the crows nest, where I was far away from distractions, and where I had a nice view of the ocean for miles, and where there was a gentle breeze blowing. It was there that I curled up with my book, flipped it open and started reading. I guess some things never change, since no matter what the situation, I could still, even at my adult age, find refuge in Sherlock Holmes. Maybe it's childish, but hell, was it so wrong?

Maybe an hour or so passed as I became lost in the pages of my novel. So lost, that I jumped when the prince called my name from the ladder right next to me.

"Don't do that!" I exclaimed, my hand over my chest, trying to calm myself. The price shrugged.

"Sorry. I couldn't find you, and I got no answer when I called you. Then I looked up and saw your wings and climbed up here," he explained.

"You didn't have to climb all the way up here, you know. You could've just yelled."

"I did, but you didn't answer." I just sighed and returned my eyes to my book.

"So… now you've decided to come talk to me? After all this time of silence?" He dropped his gaze, as if searching for an answer, but lucky for him, I suddenly noticed something. "Why is your hair wet?" He hesitated a moment, he eyes growing a little wide.

"I… I just took a bath," he answered, trying to act casual.

"…Why are you taking a bath in the middle of the night?" I asked suspiciously, narrowing my eyes at him playfully. He immediately lost his vigor and started looking around, doing everything he could to avoid my eyes.

"Well… I… that is to say… I… I felt like it!" he exclaimed nervously. At this point, I burst into hysterical laughter. The Prince's face lost its color, but then came back in a rush, and he dropped my forehead into the wood of the crow's nest platform in sheer embarrassment. "You… you know… about that?" he asked quietly.

"You woke me up moaning my name, O Prince of Perverts!" I teased. He dropped his head again, his face redder than a lobster's backside, but then reached out and grabbed my hands.

"Naomi… please, I beg you, _please_ don't tell anyone!" he pleaded, his eyes begging me. I freed one of my hands and lightly patted his wrist.

"Don't worry. I could never humiliate you like that. I won't say a word to anyone, I promise. Though… you know I'm never going to let you live this down."

"Naomi, PLEASE!" I laughed.

"Hey, your lucky I'm agreeing to keep it as our little secret. After the way you've been treating me…" I left it at that and shifted my eyes back to my book. He didn't respond, and climbed the rest of the ladder and seated himself next to me.

"Alright… I have been a little unfair to you, Naomi, and I'm sorry. But… what you said on the island… it hurt. It hurt a lot. I'm not used to heartbreak, or being turned down… You can understand that, right?"

"Sure. Being a Prince, women practically throw themselves at you. Then you find the one you want and she's taken. turns you down. I know I hurt you, and I'm really sorry, but seriously, I just want us to stay friends." He sighed heavily.

"I know… but I've never known woman quite like you before… you're so… different." I snorted.

"I'm not even human, Prince. Of course I'm different."

"I… I suppose so."

"Besides… how in the hell am I supposed to fall in love with a man who hasn't even told me his name?"

"_Naomi!_" he cried, exasperatedly.

"What? I wanna know! We've been friends for how long? And you still refuse to tell me what it is! I mean, come on! I told you about my good-for-nothing old man when I was little, didn't I? That was like, my deepest darkest secret ever, besides the fact that I'm barren."

"If you're barren, then why bother with the arrangement?"

"Well, I'm not completely sterile. Just really infertile."

"Then… it could still happen… there's still a chance… right?"

"Yeah, but it's very unlikely." He paused for a moment to wrap his brain around this. Hopefully now, he'd have a reason to stop loving me and find another girl, who was willing to have his children.

"So… anyways… what's your name?" I interrupted persistently. He let out a tired sigh and threw his arms up.

"Alright, alright, I give up! I'll tell you!" he exclaimed, but then looked at me pleadingly. "But… promise you won't laugh… or tell anyone, ok? You have to promise me." I smiled.

"Prince, if your name is as funny as the thought of you having an erotic dream, chances are I'm gonna laugh. But I really doubt that a name that messed up even exists, so chances are, I won't laugh. But I will promise not to tell if you really don't want me to."

"All right…" he bit his lip, looking like he was about to give up his sexual potency. The suspense was already killing me! "My name… is…" he kind of trailed off and for a moment I thought he was going to chicken out, but he shut his eyes and looked like this was costing him a great deal. "…Sora." I blinked.

"Sora," I repeated blankly.

"Yes, my name is Sora. Are you going to laugh now? If you are, please just get it over with." I grinned.

"I can't believe you sometimes, Prince. You got me all worked up over the mystery, and killed me with the suspense of not knowing…" He cringed, hiding his face even more. "Prince, you have the same name as one of my all time favorite fictional characters!" I exclaimed. I looked up in surprise.

"You… you've heard the name before?" he asked, somewhat timidly.

"Yes! Sora was the name of a hero who traveled through worlds and ultimately saved the lives of who knows how many people from being swallowed by darkness!" In case you don't know, I speak of Kingdom Hearts.

"…Really?"

"Yes! You should be proud of that name!"

"I… didn't… know that…"

"Well, now you do." And now I finally knew his blasted name! Oh, I feel so accomplished! "And if you still don't want me to say anything when we reach Babylon, I won't." He looked up at me and gave a slight smile.

"Thank you, Naomi."

* * *

Kiri: Welcome one and all to... WARRIOR'S ANGEL 3!!

Naomi: ...great, but I think the Prince is trying to kill himself.

Kiri: Nah, He tried that like, an hour ago when I told him he'd have to give up his name. Trust me, he's not going anywhere.

Mike: So... you duct taped him to the ceiling?

Kiri: ... Hey1 I told you not to go in there!

Mike: Well... I kinda had to... considering that it's MY ROOM!

Kiri: ... oh. WELL GO LIVE IN THE JANITORS CLOSET OR SOMETHING. At least until the Prince decides to... er... cooperate. tee hee.

Muffled yelling: GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!

Kiri: o.o damn, he got the gag off.

Naomi: ...you know, when he gets down from there...

Kiri: I know, I know, you don't have to remind me! But anyways... It's late, I'll do and FAQ some other time. For now... I'm tired... I'm off to bed. So, later, guys.


	3. Bathtime Classic

Chapter 2

I'm glad to say that the rest of the trip was much, much smoother. Things were pretty much back to normal with our friendship and we were once again teasing each other and laughing and joking. Of course, I was not about to let him forget about his little… ah… 'dream.' He still went completely red in the face when I brought it up or made reference to it.

What's more, he didn't even mind when I called him by name sometimes. I made sure to do it very sparingly, only when I was serious about something. Strange as it may sound, knowing his name made me feel like there was a… connection between us. A certain special bond of friendship that not even a tank could break through and that no one else shared.

It was late evening by now and I had gone below deck to take a bath while the Prince did whatever it is that he does when he's alone. The ship had one of those built in spa-type things (like that weird secret chamber that Farah and I had discovered in Azad, but it was much smaller than that one.) For one thing, it was only about waist high, so I had to sit on the steps, where the water was about to my neck. But hey at least the water was hot.

Though I do admit… it was a bit lonely. I half wished the prince was here with me. Even if it would be incredibly awkward, at least I would have someone to talk to. Now, all I could do was drown myself in my thoughts.

Sighing, I thought back to our adventures in Azad, when we were younger and more carefree and saw the whole thing as a grand adventure we could have fun with. I remember how the prince used to be, pompous, prideful, stubborn, but kind, generous and easygoing. Back then, we could stop every now and then and joke and fool around and not even care. Those were good times… good times…

Then those seven years went by and everything changed. With the appearance of he Dahaka, the prince was forced onto the streets into a life that he didn't belong in. A life on the run, having to keep constant watch with hardly any time to eat or sleep and fearing for his life every second of every day. After a while, he became so obsessed with staying alive that he forgot who he was. He became a shell of a man, a mere shadow of who he used to be.

We had a rough time on the island together. I can't even count how many times I got angry with him, or he became angry with me. We yelled at each other a few times, gave each other the silent treatment, and said some things that hurt both of us. But somehow, we made it through. And somehow, the Prince had fallen for me.

I think now that we were off the island, heading back to Babylon and no longer had to worry about keeping watch for the Dahaka or any other life-threatening incidents, that the Prince was starting to regain pieces of himself. After he got over his heartache, the two of us seemed to get a little closer.

But then there was last night's… incident. I never would've expected… well, you know. It kinda made me wonder whether he really was in love with me, or was just lusting after me. Sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference, but either way, he was going to have to get over it. I wasn't going to break the law. Who knows what the council would do to me if I did.

Sighing, I stood up and started to make the short journey across the bath to get the shampoo (apple scented, my favorite!) but my foot found something slippery and I fell, letting out a loud yelp just before splashing in the water. After getting a mouth full of water, I surfaced and rubbed my eyes and pulled my hair out of my face. But just as I finished…

"Naomi! I heard you scream and…"

"Prince!" I exclaimed in surprise and turned around. Someone up there really had it in for me. We both froze, the Prince stood there with his mouth open, his expression completely blank, and for a moment I had no idea why he was looking at me that way… then I remembered. The water was at waist level… and I was completely naked.

I don't remember much of what happened after that, but I remember just letting my body go through the motions of drying off and slipping into a fluffy bathrobe I'd found in one of the cabinets all the while, ready to die of embarrassment. Who knows where the Prince ran off to, but I imagine he was feeling the same way. Or maybe not. Perve.

But anyways, I just sat in our makeshift bedroom, my chin resting in my hands, trying very, very hard to push the memory of what had just happened out of my mind. But of course, trying not to think about it only made me think about it all the more. And the more I thought about it, the more the idea of crawling under a rock and staying there for the rest of my life appealed to me.

Well, I guess the good thing is that he only saw what was on the top half.

I didn't move when I heard the door open. The Prince came in, but stopped dead only a few steps in. He didn't say anything for a long time and the longer he stood there, the paler his face seemed to become. I admit it was actually kind of cute… in a certain twisted kind of way.

"…I-I'm… sorry… I-I didn't think… you'd be here…" he stuttered nervously. I only grumbled and looked away. The silence continued on until the Prince slowly made his way over and sat next to me. "L-look, Naomi… I'm really very sorry… I-I didn't mean to… to walk in on you, really, I didn't. I-I just… I heard you scream… an… and I thought you were in trouble…I-I… I guess I kinda forgot you were taking a bath."

"I know you didn't do it on purpose," I answered lowly, my face still burning hot.

"If… it helps any… you… you're very… lovely." That only succeeded in making my even more self-conscious and I hugged myself tighter. He saw this and panicked. "B-but I mean… in a good way! Not… not the other way, I promise! Er, I mean, you're still attractive in that way… but…"

"How about we just forget this ever happened and get on with our lives?!" I exclaimed loudly, cutting him off before he could stick his foot even farther in his mouth. I could've sworn I heard him sigh in relief.

"Yes… good idea," he hastily agreed. We sat in silence only a few moments longer. "At the rate we're going now, we should reach Babylon in a few days," he informed me, his voice calmer now. I twiddled my thumbs a little.

"Do you really think they'll like me?" I asked quietly.

"Of course they will! How can they not with a lovable woman such as you?"

"Well… how would it look to them if you came home with a woman you don't intend to marry?" He stopped to consider this.

"I doubt it would present an issue," he answered, but then leaned closer and dropped his voice, "but that can be fixed…" He leaned forward in attempt to steal a kiss, but I quickly shoved him back and held him at arms length.

"Sora! Not funny!"

"I didn't intend it to be funny," he grumbled.

"You know we can't."

"Yes. But I do not like the thought of someone else... touching you."

"Sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that. I'll stay until I get confirmation of my... wedding date." for some reason, it was really hard to get the word 'wedding' out. I saw him visibly cringe at the word. "Then I have to leave. For how long, I don't know."

"Isn't there any way you can got out of this?"

"No." He sighed heavily and dropped his gaze to the floor. "You'll find someone else. Someone more qualified for the job." Someone like, oh, I don't know... FARAH?!

He was quiet for a long time, and I was starting to think that this was the last I'd hear of this little issue. But, of course, that wasn't the case. "...No one has to know." I froze.

"What?"

"We are completely alone. Know one has to know about it."

"Prince!" I cried, jumping to my feet. I whirled around to face him. "Would you get your mind out of the gutter?! We can't do it, end of story! And just because we made out of the Island of Time doesn't mean we can, either!"

"You definitely weren't complaining at the time," he said matter-of-factly, also standing up.

"That was a fluke!"

"Then why can't this be a fluke as well?"

"Because it wouldn't be!" He sighed in frustration.

"Is there nothing that will change your mind?" he asked, his voice sounding exasperated. I folded my arms stubbornly.

"Nope. Nothing."

"But why? We've been friends for so long… Why can't I be your lover?!" he demanded, that hurt expression returning to his face.

"I keep telling you why! I'm marrying someone else and I can't go losing my virginity to someone else! They check for that sort of thing, you know!" A look of disappointment crossed his features and I figured I'd finally gotten through to him. Thank you, stars.

"Alright. No sex, then," he said, sounding like it pained him horribly to have to say it. "But they can't expect you to go through your entire life without doing something, right?" Oh, great. Was there no reasoning with him?

"Why do you ask?" I asked, keeping my voice guarded.

"Well... even if sex is out of the question, can't we still, what did you call it? Make out?" I blinked. That was actually a good question. I know I was expected to save myself for whoever it was I was marrying... but kissing wasn't sex. And since we didn't become angles until our teens, they honestly couldn't expect us to not kiss anybody... could they? Well, I was already in that category, and I hadn't gotten in any trouble for it. After all, my first kiss had been with the Prince just after our Sands of Time adventure. No one had called me in and chewed me out for it... maybe it was ok?

"Now that you mention it... I don't really know," I told him honestly. But did I dare tell him it was ok? I can only imagine what disastrous events would take place afterwords. "...I don't think there'd be a problem... I mean, there isn't really a way to check for something like that. At least, I don't think there is..."

"Then why can't we just do that?" his voice was much softer now, but I was still very uncertain. I honestly doubted I would get busted for making out with the Prince of Persia. But if I did, what other repercussions would come? Lord only knows that Princy would try to push it eventually.

"Well... I guess it's ok..." I finally admitted, and I swear, I saw a look of pure joy flash in his eyes for a split second. He came over to me and swept me up in his arms, obviously satisfied he'd won some kind of victory. "But we make out and that's it! Nothing more than that!"

"Agreed," he said happily, taking me over to the pile of blankets we'd been sleeping in.

"And Sora?"

"Yes?"

"You're really cute when you're bashful." I didn't look, but I just knew he was blushing.  


* * *

Kiri: Sorry guys, I would've had this up last night, but for some stupid reason, the stupid ass server wouldn't let me upload anything, but at least it works now. So... onwards to the FAQ! who's turn is it today?

Everyone: (hand)

Kiri: Hmmm... Princy! You haven't done much in a good while!

Prince: You had me stuck to the ceiling, you vile woman!

Naomi: Not that you're doing much better now... tied to that chair...

Q: Uh... why is the Prince tied to a chair...?

A: Because the idea of me having an erotic dream and... well... it's unfathomable! And on top of that, everyone knows my name now! That _woman_ over there that calls herself an authoress refuses to face me and has kept me tied down!

Kiri: (grins)

Q: ooookay... So, is his name really Sora?

A: ...yes. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

Kiri: I like that name! And it fits you, whether you want to admit it or not! Besides, it's the name of one of my favorite video game characters.

Q: Kingdom Hearts?

Kiri: Yes, Kingdom Hearts. That game rocks! Although, the second one is better than the first, I think.

Q: So anyways, is Naomi really sterile?

A: Apparently, she is. But not completely.

Q: but if she's sterile, why are you still after her?

A: Because she's gorgeous (grins charmingly at Naomi)

Group of fangirls: AAAHHHHH! (swoon and faint)

Naomi: (rolls eyes)

Kiri: How did they get in here? Oh well, someone get the broom! And I think that's about it for today, peoples. I have a lot of work to do so I hope this chapter will be enough to tide you all over until the next update. Until then, Ciao!


	4. Dinner With the King

Chapter 3

For the remainder of the trip, our daily routine was pretty much the same. We'd wake up in the morning, get ready for the day, make sure we were still on course, tie down any loose ropes, adjust the sails, then we'd go off for a while to read or do whatever and when afternoon came, we'd sit around and talk and goof around. Then in the evening, we'd have another discussion about our relationship (he really was more stubborn that a flock of goats!), he'd talk me into making out, then I'd take a nap on his lap.

The kissing was fine... but it was starting to concern me a little. I didn't know what had happened to me when we'd made out on the island, but whenever he'd kiss me, or even touch me in a suggestive manner, those feelings would flare up again. My simple affection for him would rapidly evolve into intense passion and my entire being would cry out for him. I had no control over it whatsoever. And quite frankly, I was starting to get scared that my own body would betray me. I could only hope that the Prince would keep his word not to deflower me.

I was rather rudely awoken from a pleasant dream one particular morning when Babylon finally came into sight. The Prince had run down, shaken me awake and exclaimed (rather giddily, I might add) that we were almost home. Most of what he said was lost through the filter of premature wakefulness that was still covering my brain, but I at least registered that we were almost there. And it's about damn time if you ask me.

So I went back to sleep again. I was just drifting off into another good dream when I was once again rudely shaken awake.

"Naomi! Wake up!" the Prince exclaimed. I drowsily cracked one eye open and glared. He was obviously all excited about something.

"Whaddaya want?" I grumbled.

"Naomi, we made it. We're home! And my father is here! I want you to meet him!" he said anxiously, grinning broadly.

"Sure," I answered, "Right after I finish my nap." I rolled over, intending to go back to sleep and finish that nice dream I was having about singing frogs and dancing candy bars and cute boys all trying to date me, but I suddenly felt my blankets ripped away and a rush of cold air hit my hard. I curled up out of reflex and blindly started reaching for my covers, even though they weren't there.

"Come on, now. Hurry and get dressed. We're all waiting for you!"

"Can't I catch up later?" I whined.

"No. Now come on, it's time to go."

"Then go!" at this point, he'd had enough of my nonsense and just grabbed my arm and pulled me. In protest, I went completely limp, successfully making his life much harder.

"Naomi! Stop being difficult!" he exclaimed. I made some noises of protest until he dropped me.

"Beeeeed..." I began crawling back to where my nice warm blankets were. I guess it was around this time that the Prince decided to pull out his trump card.

"Naomi, either you get up on your own, or I swear, I'll carry you out there the way you are now." I dismissed it as an idle threat at first, but then I realized that I was in my bathrobe.

"YOU WOULDN'T DARE."

"Oh, yes. I would."

"NO! GET AWAY! DON'T YOU TOUCH ME! NO, NO, NO, NO, PRINCE YOU PUT ME DOWN! PUT ME DOWN- ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! YOU WIN! I'LL GET DRESSED! I'LL GET DRESSED!" Satisfied with my surrender, the Prince set me on my feet.

"I'll be waiting on deck," he told me was a triumphant smile. Oh, I was going to get him for that...

I grudgingly put my clothes on and hid my wings away in my charm, all the while thinking of dozens of different pranks I could pull to get even. After pulling my boots on, I stopped up to the deck, but was stopped once again by Prince charming.

"Finally," he said, obviously trying to tease me. I scowled. "... Aren't you going to fix your hair?" He reached out to brush my hair back out of my face, but I slapped his hands away.

"Leave me alone!" I went back below deck to sort my hair out as best I could, and returned just in time to see the King of Persia embrace his long lost son. I was such a touching moment, I almost forgot that I was mad at him. ...Almost.

"So you are the young lady my son spoke so highly of!" the King said in a welcoming tone as I joined their little reunion. I scratched my ear.

"Yeah, I guess so… can I go back to bed now?" The Prince elbowed me in the ribs. "Ow!"

"This is Naomi," he introduced me, "if it hadn't been for her, I probably wouldn't be standing here now."

"Is that so?" the King answered, one eyebrow lifted, "well, then, it seems I owe you much for bringing my son back. Thank you." I blushed a little.

"Oh, um... it was nothing. Really.

"Don't be humble, Naomi," the Prince argued, "you saved my life more times that I can recount."

"So first you literally drag me from my nice warm bed, then threaten me with forced indecent exposure, and now you're suddenly being nice to me?" I demanded accusingly. The Prince shot me a look. "Give me one reason why I should even be talking to you right now."

"Naomi, please!" he exclaimed, his voice exasperated, "Not in front of my father!"

"Perhaps if you apologize, I might consider it."

"Naomi!" he cried, pulling on his hair. The King's chuckling interrupted my moment of revenge.

"I don't think I've ever seen a woman so easily make my son lose his composure before," he told me. "You must be a very good friend to him." For the sake of the first meeting, I decided to drop the vengeance act for the moment.

"He's my best friend," I told the King. "And your son is completely hopeless without me." Ok, maybe I didn't drop it completely. With another soft chuckle, the King stepped forward and placed both hands on my shoulders and ginned down at me. I would say it was fatherly, but I wouldn't really know what fatherly was. You know... since I never really had a father...

"Well, to show my gratitude, we shall return to the palace and you shall be treated to a huge feast! And of course, you shall have a place of honor at my table! Then the two of you can tell me all about you're travels." I cast a quick glance at the Prince. Great. We'd probably have to make up something to cover our asses. We couldn't just very well tell him that the reason the Prince had been gone for so long was because he was being chased all over the place by a big black, meanie demon.

Needless to say, I didn't get back to sleep. I was led through the city, all the while listening to King Sharaman blab on about how wonderful it was to have his son back all thanks to _me_ and that it would be wonderful to have a lovely young lady such as _me_ take up residence in the palace and so on. Well… he only said that last part after I politely explained that I had nowhere else to go, so I'd decided I might as well come here.

I did hear a rather interesting snippet of conversation between the Prince and his father, though. It went something like this:

"It must have been an act of divinity, having both of my sons return home so suddenly," the King said, probably thinking out loud. It definitely caught the Prince's attention, though.

"Jericho is here as well? I thought he..."

"He returned only a few days ago, in perfect condition."

"What about Butterfly? Is she here too?"

"Sadly, no. But I am happy to know that at least two of my children are alive and well."

"...How is my brother, then?"

"He is well, though he has been rather... reclusive as of late. It has made talking with him difficult." At this point, there was a long, sort of awkward silence, and then the subject changed. So the Prince's brother was here, too? Well, it made sense. Back during our Azad adventure, he had introduced himself to Farah as 'the youngest son of King Sharaman.' It was only right to expect a King to have more than one son... just in case something happened. Whoever this brother was, I was already anxious to meet him.

When we finally did reach the Palace, the order to start preparing the huge feast was given and all there was left to do was sit around… and… wait, I guess. I tired to stay out of the conversation and give the Prince and the King some 'family time,' but somehow, I kept getting dragged into the conversation. Of course, the king wanted to know everything about me. How I'd met his son, how long we'd known each other, where my homeland was, and so on. I tried to keep what I said to a minimum so there was plenty of room for lies. The Prince and I eventually settled on the story that he had gone looking for some kind of treasure, got ship wrecked on a strange island that was inhabited by crazy psycho killers and I had saved his butt and helped him get off. Something along those lines.

But despite the madness of the afternoon, I never once caught sight of this mysterious brother, which was kind of disappointing. I was really curious to see what he looked like. Did he look like the Prince? Like his father? Or did he resemble his mother? Were he and the Prince twins? SOMEBODY GIVE ME A FREAKING CLUE HERE!

By the time dinner came, I was starved and the smell of food from the dining room was driving me bonkers. When I saw it, it was even better. I had never in my life seen so many different varieties of food on one table before. And food that I actually liked, too! Bowls of fruit, platters of meat, baskets of bread and all kinds of other neat stuff were all set out on the huge table. My mouth watered as I took my seat across from the Prince, who couldn't help but laugh as my eyes wandered up and down the table.

"Are you liking it here so far, Naomi?" he asked me teasingly. I grinned.

"I'll tell you something right now, there is no cafeteria in the world that can match up to this." He laughed. At this point, the King rose from his seat atthe head of the table and raised his goblet. Everyone immediately quieted down and gave him their full attention.

"A toast, to the return of my youngest son, and to the lovely lady who brought him safely home! Son, it is good to finally have you back." The Prince smiled in appreciation, and I swear I saw him blush a little. I tired my best to stay dignified when it was finally time to eat, and I tried to remember all that crap my mom had taught me about table manners and etiquette and whatnot, really, I did, but I was just so damn _hungry_… Even the King was staring is awe as I finished the last few scraps on what used to be my fourth helping. I mean, I even managed to out eat the Prince! And he hasn't eaten in lord only knows how long! I've only been going on an empty stomach for a couple days!

"Naomi… if you were that hungry… why didn't you eat on the ship?" the Prince asked, raising an eyebrow as I downed the last bit of water in my goblet. I shrugged.

"I dunno. Probably because you weren't," I answered. He gave me a look. "What?! The food on the ship was all stale and nasty!" At that, he only smiled and shook his head. "But anyway, damn, I haven't had a meal this good since… ever! Yknow, I might just stick around a while if dinner is always like this."

We made some more small talk before I was shown to my new room. All I have to say is that I've seen entire apartments smaller than that room. And to top it all off, it was right next to the Prince's. Go figure. It didn't take him long to use our connecting balcony to come visit me.

"So how are you liking it here so far, Naomi?" he asked casually as I tried to find places for what few belongings I had.

"It's nice here... and your father is very accommodating," I answered, trying to be polite.

"He usually is. But you know, it's a strange feeling, being home." I looked up from arranging my small book collection and gave him a questioning look. "I was away for seven years. Possibly longer. I got used to a living a lifestyle of constantly looking over my shoulder and living on the bare minimum. Now that all of that is over with, and I'm home now... it's a strange feeling to be waited on hand and foot." I couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Well, at least you have some kind of understanding of the common folks now," I said, trying to be helpful.

"Perhaps you are right." He collapsed on my over-sized bed and let out a sigh. "It would come in handy when I inherit the throne." Hearing him say that reminded me about his brother.

"Prince, can I ask you something?" I said, wondering what kind of ground I was treading on.

"What is it?"

"Well, I overheard you and your father talking earlier. You never told me you had a brother." the Prince was silent for a long time. For a moment, I started to worry that I'd crossed some kind of line. Family business was usually a delicate subject.

"Yes, that's right," he finally answered. "I'm the youngest of three."

"But I never saw anyone at dinner who even remotely looked like you, or the king," I said, hoping I wasn't pushing any wrong buttons.

"That's because he wasn't there. But then again, I haven't seen my brother or my sister in nearly fifteen years. I wouldn't even know what either of them would look like now," he explained.

"So you have a sister, too? Why haven't you seen them?" The plot thickens.

"I can't say for sure. Both of them just vanished one day."

"That's weird."

"I know. Why are you so interested, anyway?" he asked, sitting up so he could look at me.

"Oh, come on. I've told you about my family. I hardly know anything about yours!" I went over to the bed and sat next to him. "So if he's older than you, why isn't he the one inheriting the throne?" the Prince paused again.

"He stepped down and gave the crown to me. I don't know why."

"There certainly are a lot of mysteries in you family, aren't there?"

"Yes, there are a lot of unknowns. But those are for later." He snatched me around the waist and pulled me down on the bed with him and kissed me.

"Prince..." I protested, "can we not do this tonight? I'm really sleepy." To my surprise, he smiled.

"So am I." Wow. That was unexpected. "Let's just sleep tonight, and consider that a good-night kiss. How does that sound?"

"Sounds good to me." And before either of us knew it, we were conked out.

* * *

Kiri: eh... kind of a pointless filler chapter... but at least they're in Babylon now, so things can really get started! Sorry, no FAQ. I'm really tired and I've had a hectic week. So I'll talk more next chapter. Until then, Ciao!


	5. Jericho and Dalila

Chapter 4

I think it's safe to say that I had never slept so well in my entire life. I probably would've slept the entire day away had the Prince not come in and woke me up. I put up a fight, but in the end, he won out and I had to get up. There was someone he wanted me to meet, he kept telling me as I pulled my clothes on. He wouldn't tell me exactly who, only that whoever it was was waiting on us.

I had barely finished lacing my boots up when he practically yanked me out of the room, despite my groans of protest. Whatever was going on obviously had him excited. And if there was one thing I'd learned from the past couple of days, it's that tired Naomi's and excited Prince's do not mix.

He pulled me down into a common room with a fireplace and a couple deep red velvet couches. Inside, there were three people. The first being King Sharaman, the second two were new faces. I decided to just play along and plastered on a smile as the Prince pulled me in front of him and set his hands on my shoulders.

The first one I noticed was a woman. She was dressed in a long, very revealing red dress that accented her smooth curves and was probably enough to make any guy drool all over the place just looking. Her complexion was pretty average, but it fit her almost perfectly. She had long, shiny black hair that fell gracefully down to her waist, and the greenest eyes I had ever seen. She reminded me of Kaileena in a way, but she wasn't. Kaileena didn't have that spooky, 'stay-away' vibe about her. Although she seemed to possess an unearthly beauty, there was something about her I just couldn't put my finger on…

The other one was a man, maybe a little taller tha the Prince, and seemed to bear some resemblances to him. He was dressed in mostly black with decorative gold trimmings, and had the same rugged facial features as the Prince, though it was obvious he was older. His eyes were blue, and his hair was deep brown, almost black, and I could've sworn he had the same nose as the Prince…

I was definitely about to meet his mysterious long lost brother. I almost felt giddy.

Anyways, the three seemed heavily involved in a conversation, and I wasn't sure if they had even noticed the Prince and I standing here, until the woman looked up and smiled, and stood up, smoothing out her dress.

"So you must be Naomi Fox," she said in a smooth, silvery voice that was so beautiful I had to double check to make sure it belonged to her and not some ghost leaning over my shoulder. "The Prince speaks so highly of you. My name is Dalila." Just hearing the name sent a shiver down my back. Now it was official. This woman creeped me out. But still, I kept my smile on, even though it was probably getting faker by the second.

"Uh… hi?" I quickly glanced back at the Prince for reassurance. He released his hold on my shoulders and stood by my side.

"It is very nice to finally meet this mysterious Angel everyone is talking about." She leaned a little closer. That made me feel suddenly nervous. She called me an angel... did she know? I'd put my wings away before anyone had even seen me! the only really incriminating thing was my hair color! But so far i'd been getting away with it by saying that the land I came from was 'very different.' Oh crap. Oh crap, this could not get out. I'd be in so much trouble... She continued, "But as one woman to another… your hair."

"What's wrong with my hair?" I demanded, immediately going on the defensive, hoping she wasn't making another angel reference. I started scraping my fingers through it and looked around for a mirror. Luckily there was one just above the fireplace, and when I caught my reflection, I nearly screamed and ran out of the room.

"PRINCE! You dragged me out of my nice warm bed and all around the palace with my hair looking like THIS? _What's wrong with you_?" I cried and I darted to the mirror and started trying to tame my hair, which was sticking out everywhere in a nice 'bed head' look.

"I actually didn't notice," he answered stiffly, trying to sound innocent.

"How could you not notice? I look like the wrong end of a horse!"

"You look fine to me…" he tried, but it didn't work. I smoothed out my tangled mess as best I could for the moment and reluctantly faced my audience again. As I returned, I saw the other new face stand up, and yep; he was taller than the Prince.

"This is who I wanted you to meet," the Prince told me, "My brother." Before I could so much as give a confused look, the man stepped forward, smiling down at me and bowed.

"My pleasure," he said, taking my hand and kissing the back of it in a very gentlemanly fashion. He stood back up, "When I heard a rumor that my brother had finally returned home with a lovely young woman, I just had to confirm this for myself. And now I see that the rumors are true. He did return with a lovely young woman." I couldn't help but blush madly. And that was when _it_ happened. An extremely odd combination of feelings erupted out of nowhere. I can't explain it exactly... but as I looked at him, I suddenly felt a sensation of recognition... and the strangest feeling that I had, somehow, been waiting for him.

"…I'm flattered," I answered somewhat shyly. Then I noticed that he was looking at me kind of blankly. I wonder... did he feel the same thing that I had just felt?

"My name is Jericho, and yes, I am Sora's older brother." I saw the Prince cringe at the use of his name, even though Jericho had lowered his voice slightly when he said it.

"He returned to the city only a short while before you did," King Sharaman interjected. "And," he walked passed Dalila and stood by the two of them, "finally having both of my sons return home is a bigger blessing than I ever could have asked for." Jericho smiled, and so did the Prince, though his was more reluctant. "But as much as I would love to stay, I'm afraid I have business elsewhere." He put one hand on each of their shoulders. "I trust the two of you will be staying for dinner at least?"

"Yes, Father," Jericho replied, smiling.

"I do not plan on leaving any time soon, either," the Prince concurred.

"Wonderful. Then if you will all excuse me, I have plans to make." With a final smile to all of us, the King of Persia left the group.

After we'd finished with the introductions, I got away from creepy, creepy Dalila and sat as far away from her as I could. We made some more small talk about this and that; the Prince and his brother did some catching up, and I got to learn Dalila's story. According to her, she had worked for a rich man in a nearby city until his mysterious death only a few weeks ago. Having no other place to go, she came to Babylon and appealed to the King for work. The King, being on the kind nature he was, let her stay in the palace. I can only imagine what sort of 'work' she did.

I didn't get much dirt on Jericho, though, much to my disappointment. But I did notice something about him. When we'd first started talking, he seemed a bit guarded and there's were some rather uncomfortable silences between him and the Prince in which seemed to make him a little jittery. But as the conversation went on, he relaxed more. Honestly, the more I learned about this guy, the more I wanted to know about him.

Oh, and there was some controversy over my outfit. Apparently, my tunic had seen better days. It had been band new when I first started my journey with the Prince, but now it was torn up, stained, dirty and looked just plain horrible. But unfortunately, it was my only outfit. So, it was decided that I was to be taken shopping later on.

_Shopping._

I HATE shopping!

Prince would be my main escort, though Jericho decided to come along too, after what seemed like a painstaking decision. I wanted to protest, but I guess I just didn't want to ruin the Prince's fun of dressing me up.

But it was almost worth it when I walked into the shop with the two Princes and the seamstress took one look at me. I had to fight very, _very_ hard to keep a straight face when she saw me, because the look on her face was priceless.

"Honey, how in the world can you live with yourself wearing something like THAT?" she exclaimed, immediately pushing me back behind a big heavy curtain.

"Oh, I dunno… Being raised by a pack of wolves?" I joked.

"Goodness, I didn't think the rumors of an exotic young woman from a far off land being among us were true, but even so, I would have thought a with all the rumors of her impeccable beauty going around, she would have better taste in clothing than this!"

"Wait, what was that bit about impeccable beauty? ...Don't you even say anything, Prince!" I shouted, just knowing that the Prince was about to open his mouth in response. "Well, I probably wouldn't be wearing this… but it's my only outfit… sadly enough."

"Well then," the seamstress, whose name I found out to be Danishia, asked me, "What is it exactly that you are looking for?" I just shrugged.

"Uh… I don't know?" She nodded in understanding and a minute later had me looking through a large book of all different kings of patterns, materials and styles. Every so often she would step back and size me up, then either nod or shake her head.

It was later decided that I would need at least two outfits: a gown and another tunic. I made a point to tell her that the tunic had to be durable, something that could withstand a hurricane if I were faced with one. She quickly took my measurements for that and picked out a pretty cerulean fabric that matched my eyes. The bitch was the dress. We must've gone through hundreds of different styles before narrowing it down to a few. Out of those that we had, I picked out my favorites, and Danisha carefully looked me over for each one. I thought we'd never get out of there. But finally, we had a style and all we had left to do was pick a color and take measurements.

I could tell that the two boys were getting a little anxious, but they didn't seem to mind _too_ much that I was taking forever. Jericho was of course all helpful, making suggestions every so often, giving his opinion about a fabric, or giving words of encouragement. I thought it was a little odd that he was suddenly so comfortable when earlier he'd looked more than ready to return to the palace. The Prince, however, seemed content to just hang back and watch me. He was probably imagining me in all different kinds of clothing and dresses. Or in skimpy armor. Or nothing at all. Pervert.

Anyways, Danisha held up a number of different colored clothes to my face, trying to decide what would look good on me. Finally, she held up a beautiful light indigo and after some careful consideration, smiled.

"Very well, it seems that we have finally found something," she said, sounding satisfied, "I just need a few more measurements and I'll will have these ready in just a couple of days."

"There's no rush…" I said, but realized my mistake only after I'd said it.

"Darling, take a good look in a mirror and come back and say that." I couldn't help but feel like an idiot at this point, so I just shut up and let Jericho do the rest of the talking.

I was relieved when we finally got out of the seamstress' shop. Seriously, I thought we'd be there all day! But anyways, we did a little ancient day window-shopping, which was actually kinda fun. And it didn't even bother me that much when people stopped and gawked at me. It was actually a bit entertaining, the way they'd lean over and whisper and stand there and gape like a fish. Or maybe it was just because I was in the company of my best friend and I knew that there was no way in hell that what Danishia said about my... erm... 'impeccable beauty' couldn't possibly be true.

I kept a tight grip on the Prince's hand, though… If I got lost out here, then what the hell was I gonna do? I also enjoyed chatting with Jericho… for some reason, he and I really hit it off. We talked about everything! Art, music, food (of course, food must always come into the conversation), ourselves… We joked, laughed, agreed and disagreed… It was like we were on a first date.

Though, I couldn't help but feel a little guilty that we were kinda leaving the Prince out of the fun. I could see that he was feeling a little… left out. So, being the nice goodie-goodies that we are, we included him in as much as possible. Though, deep down, I could sense a little ping of jealousy toward Jericho. Uh oh, sibling rivalry?

I really hope that those two idiots don't end up fighting over me…

It was a little later that we passed a seemingly empty jewelry vender. Normally, I would've blown it off, since I'd already passed several of those, but this one stopped me. Out of the corner of my eye, I'd spotted the most beautiful blue topaz ring I'd ever seen and I just had to stop and gape at it. I pressed my face almost right up to the glass case it was displayed in and stared, hardly blinking. I'm not sure what the Prince and Jericho were doing… but the two of them were soon by my side, trying to figure out what had me so transfixed.

"It's just a ring, Naomi," the Prince said, trying to pry me away so we could go home.

"A very gorgeous ring…" I answered, sorta monotone.

"Well, it most definitely matches you," Jericho said lightheartedly. "But to tell you the truth, I can't really see you wearing it." He and the Prince stepped back a little.

"But… it's so… pretty…" I pressed my face a little closer. But then…

"Can I interest you in something, madam?" the shop keep's ridiculously booming voice scared the crap out of me and I yelped and jumped backwards, landing on my butt. The three men just stood there looking at me, my two companions trying not to grin.

"_Don't DO that!"_ I exclaimed loudly before Jericho pulled me to my feet. I hunched over a little and gripped my chest. "Holy crap, I think you just scared ten years off my life!"

"My apologies, Miss, didn't mean to scare ya," the shop keep answered. Then he got a better look. "Well, I'll be… the rumors _are_ true!" he exclaimed.

"Ok, what the hell are these rumors everyone is going on about?" I demanded, dusting myself off.

"Rumors that our Prince returned to Babylon with a very beautiful young woman with blue hair from a distant land," the vendor explained.

"...Beautiful? Me...? No, no, there has to be some mistake. I'm not beautiful, I'm just a plain old me. There's got to be someone else walking around with a blue wig on or something."

"Don't be absurd, Naomi," the Prince told me. "Of course they mean you."

"How can they mean me? I'm not that pretty." The look the Prince gave me was one of 'are-you-freaking-kidding-me?' "Well, I'm not!"

"I don't know what standards beauty is measured by where you come from, but here, you are probably the most beautiful woman many of the people here have ever seen."

"but that doesn't make me beautiful. I'm just different."

"Naomi, just shut up and accept that fact that you're pretty, alright?"

"But I'm not!" At this point, he just gave me a look and ignored me. So everyone in Babylon thought I was freaking gorgeous. "Great... Could this possibly get much worse?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well then, back to business," said the shop keep, "you seemed to be interested in something over here."

"Uh…I was just looking at that ring there…" I pointed it out to him. He just made a humming noise as he examined it.

"Yes… a bit expensive that one, but I suppose a discount can be arranged... That ring looks as though it belongs on your finger."

"No," I said shaking my head, "no, that's fine… it's a nice ring and all… but it's too elaborate for me. It just wouldn't look right, you know?" I briefly glanced back at the boys, and then meant to turn back and tell the shop keep that I wasn't going to buy it, when I got my second surprise of the day.

"Prince," I said, tugging on his arm. "Everyone's staring..." I watched two girls about my age lean over and start whispering to each other, and then a small group start mumbling amongst themselves. Almost every person in the area was looking at me. I suddenly felt self-conscious.

"You're famous, remember?" the Prince reminded me. "They've just never seen someone of your particular... attributes. Don't worry about it, Naomi."

"Easy for you to say."

"By that he means that blue hair isn't something you see around here very often," Jericho told me. I just bit my lip and tried not to notice the staring.

Thankfully, my fifteen minutes of fame was over quickly and the three of us had to head back. The Prince was pretty talkative the rest of the way, telling me how he just knew they would all love me and that if things kept up like this, I would be just snug as a bug in a rug living here. But for whatever reason, Jericho wouldn't say much of anything. I thought about asking why he was suddenly so quiet, but he looked like he had a lot on his mind, so I decided to just let it go.

Speaking of minds, I had a lot to think about, too. Now that I was here in Babylon, how in the world was I going to straighten all this out whenever I did decided to go back up to the Heavens? And I still had the Prince's unwanted affections to deal with. My new clothes would be ready in just a couple of days, and Dalila was still back at the palace waiting to creep me out again. Oh boy. Well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad… or maybe it would…(sigh).

* * *

Kiri: Gah, this is awful... Sorry fur the sucky ending, guys. The weather here sucks (WIND!) and it's left me feeling really drained, so I've been a little out of it. I'm just going to do a short, quickie FAQ, then I'm going to bed to catch up on some much-needed sleep!

Q: why did the prince get Naomi out of bed so early?

A: Because he's an ass like that.

Prince: HEY!

A: (snickers)

Q: Why is Dalila so creepy?

A: Maybe she's hiding something.

Q; Hiding something? What's she hiding?

A: I said _maybe_ she's hiding something. heheh.

Q: ok then... is this Jericho guy gonna be a new love interest for Naomi?

A: Well, he is going to get a girl, but I'm not saying who.

Q: Why did you name him Jericho?

A: I like that name. It's actually from another video game: Darkwatch, if anyone's ever played it. It's about vampires, and it's really spooky! But anyways, i heard that name and was like 'I've gotta name a character that!' So, it went on my list of names in reserve. .

Q: So then, if the Prince has a living older brother, why isn't he the heir to the throne of Babylon?

A: there's definitely a reason. But you'll just have to wait and find out what that reason is for yourself.

Q: Is Dalila somehow connected to Kaileena?

A: Nope. She's not. So get that idea out of your heads!

Q: but then why-

Kiri: OK, I think that's enough for today, I'm going off to bed now. So until the next chapter, ciao!


	6. Illness

Chapter 6

A couple more days went by without anything very exciting going on. Princy, of course, wasn't giving up in his quest to win my heart and I could tell that he was becoming increasingly jealous of Jericho, since the two of us were really getting along well. I could tell since the Prince made a point of telling me that we'd known each other forever and had a very deep relationship.

Then there was Dalila. Creepy, creepy Dalila. She seemed to hang around the Prince a lot, for whatever reason. And call my crazy, but I could've sworn I've seen her trying to flirt with him a few times…yknow, the whole 'batting the eyelashes, pushing the chest out slightly and talking in a deep come-get-me voice' thing. Not that it's a very big deal, I mean, it'd be great if the Prince found another girl to go ga-ga for, but… not Dalila. She was easily one of the nicest people I'd met, and she was always eager to help when it was needed. I almost felt silly for the way I felt about her… But there was just something about her I couldn't put my finger on. Whenever she was around, the temperature seemed to drop a little and my gut would twist itself into knots. I dunno what it is about her, but I didn't like her. At all.

Anyway… my clothes came in! I got my new tunic, which was surprisingly comfy, considering the lack of manufactured material, and my gown, which I hesitated to try on, since… it looked a bit uncomfortable. But I eventually had to so Danisha could hem it and whatnot. Boring.

Things seemed to be going pretty well, despite a few minor details. That is… until I got sick. I have no idea what it was, or how I got it, but one morning, I woke up nauseous, freezing my ass off and drenched in sweat. As always, the Prince came in to wake me up, saw my state of health and immediately called for a physician. That wasn't really much help, since he had no idea how to really diagnose me. But either way, he still left me with some kind of tonic to take and that same old story 'get plenty of rest, and drink plenty of water and blah, blah, blah.'

I spent the rest of the day in bed, hiding under five blankets in a futile attempt at keeping warm. I was freezing cold, but according to the Prince, my temperature was rising and I was sweating so much I practically had to wring my hair out. I threw up pretty much everything I was given to eat. The only thing I could keep down was water. Something told me that this was no ordinary cold I had.

The Prince stayed with me most of the day, talking to me, tending to my every need. It was really sweet of him, taking care of me like that… Jericho came in a few times, too. He didn't say much, except ask how I felt, and telling me that with a fever like mine, hiding under five blankets couldn't possibly be good for me at all. But most of the time he was in my room, he just sat on the end of my bed, watching me like a hawk, studying my symptoms carefully.

I had a couple visitors, also. When the King had caught wind of my illness, he came by to wish me the best and that if there was anything I needed to just let him know, which was nice of him. Then… Dalila came in, creepy as ever, offering me a sympathetic smile, which, if you ask me, looked incredibly fake. Witch.

"Oh, you poor darling," she had said, her silvery voice doing that cold thing to my gut, "You must feel horrible."

"Horrible ain't the word for it," I groaned miserably.

"I know an old recipe for a special broth that's supposed to cure such ailments. Would you like me to make you some?" she offered. NO! Heck no! Just get out of my room and leave me alone!

"No… I wouldn't be able to keep it down anyway," I answered, trying to sound polite, but… it wasn't working too well.

"You're sure? I don't mind, dear, if it will help you to feel any better. If you change your mind, just tell me so, alright?" I'd rather eat live sea urchins, thank you very much.

"What happened to you're wrist?" the prince suddenly inquired, gesturing to the slightly bloodstained bandage around Dalila's left wrist. She held it up and touched it, smiling in slight embarrassment.

"Oh, nothing at all, just an accident in the kitchen. Nothing to worry over."

"You work in the kitchen?" Jericho asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I help out every now and then. Your father was kind enough to allow my to stay here, I feel inclined to do something in return," she explained smoothly. "But goodness, the day is just flying past, I still have so much to do… if you gentlemen will excuse me. I hope you get better soon, darling, it would be a shame to lose you so soon. I hope you haven't caught one of those dreadful plagues that have been going around." With that, she left. Plagues. That was just what I needed to hear. Not.

It was quiet for a few moments. The Prince softly dabbed a cloth over my sweaty forehead and Jericho just stood there, his eyes fixed and the door as though in deep thought.

"Sora," he finally said, almost making me jump in surprise. The Prince looked up at his brother. "I need to speak with you. Alone."

"What for?" the Prince asked, raising an eyebrow. The older sibling didn't reply, but only walked toward the door. The Prince, seeing he had no choice but to leave me alone for a few minutes (oh, the inhumanity!) gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead and left after Jericho.

I could faintly hear their voices in the hall, but couldn't make out of word of what they were saying. Whatever they were saying, they were saying it very quietly. Not that I cared much. I was to busy trying to settle my poor stomach. The poor little guy had taken a real beating today and really needed a rest.

The Prince finally came back in and sat back down at my bedside and stroked my forehead. He didn't say anything, but the slightly worried look in his eyes spurred my curiosity.

"What happened?" I asked quietly, my voice hoarse from all the puking. He sighed slowly, dropped his eyes, but quickly looked back.

"Jericho suspects foul play," he told me. I blinked.

"Foul play? Like poison?"

"Yes."

"But… why would anyone want to poison me? I haven't done anything…" the Prince shook his head.

"I don't know who or why, but Jericho is on his way to the kitchens to do a little investigating. Personally, I think he's being a little critical… but then again… the way you became ill so suddenly… makes no sense."

"Do you think someone's trying to kill me?" I asked point blank. He took a while to compose his answer for that one.

"I don't know, Naomi. But if someone is, I'll find him and hang him for this. But if there isn't some kind of ploy…" he stopped and let the words hang. "Whatever is going on, be it natural disease or conspiracy, Jericho is no fool."

"I hope so… I can't take much more of this…" I moaned pathetically. The Prince smiled softly.

"Just don't tell him I said anything."

"Agreed."

"Is there anything I can get for you?" Let's see… water, check. Bucket, check. Blankets, check. Hmm….

"Read to me?" I asked timidly. He gave a puzzled look.

"I'm sorry?"

"My book… I haven't read a single chapter in three days. That's practically blasphemy."

"Oh."

"It's in that drawer… the second one down…"

"…Is this it?"

"Yep. My book mark should be in there… somewhere…" I closed my eyes and relaxed and he opened the Sherlock Holmes book I'd taken from Kaileena's library and started reading aloud to me. As always, I quickly became absorbed in the story. Almost enough to forget how miserable I was. And oddly enough, I kinda liked how the words sounded as the Prince read them. They seemed to roll off his tongue so fluently… He almost made it sound like poetry. The good kind of poetry, I mean. Not that crappy junk.

Furthermore, call me delusional, but it seemed to me like he was enjoying reading to me. The hours passed and he read nonstop, only pausing at the end of chapters to ask if I wanted to hear more and give me another drink of water. And yknow something? I didn't puke once the whole time, either! Yay! But anyway, after a while, the pleasant sound of his voice reading the passages out of one of my favorite books started taking its toll on me. I yawned, but I don't think he noticed. I tried to stay awake, at least until the end of the chapter, but I couldn't help it. Betrayed by my own body, I finally fell asleep.

* * *

Kiri: Sorry to leave you guys all hanging again. I've had almost no time at all to write very much, since school has been hectic like you wouldn't believe! But I finally got this one finished.

Mike: Aw, how cute. Not.

Kiri: Shut up, you! It was cute!

Naomi: (wrapped in a good number of blankets and constantly pulling out tissues to blow her nose) Did you HAVE to make me get sick?

Kiri: Yes. Yes I did. Any complaints? Too bad.

Naomi: I'm freaking miserable over here!

Q: What's with Dalila?

Kiri: GAH! Can't you wait like, two seconds?

Q: No.

Kiri: argh...

Q: So what's with Dalila? She's creepy...

Naomi: damn right she is! (blows nose again)

Q: is she the one that poisoned Naomi?

Jericho: assuming she even WAS poisoned, she's definately a suspect.

Kiri: says the book thief who has been sneaking off with all Naomi's Sherlock Holmes book at night...

Jericho: 0.0 You know about that?!

Kiri: (snicker)

Naomi: AHA! So you're the one who's been doing it! I'll kill you for this one, Jericho! Just as soon as... (sneezes)

Q: So, er... Jericho seems nice...

Jericho: I am nice. .

Kiri: Is that why you robbed that train a little while ago?

Jericho: ... I hate you.

Kiri: (grin) But yeah, Jericho is a nice guy.

Q: But is he gonna turn out to be like one of those annoying love interests that's always getting in the way of the relationship we all know needs to be?!

Kiri: maaaaybe. (grin) He does seem to have a bit of a crush on Naomi, doesn't he...

Jericho: I do not!

Kiri: We'll see about that...But that's about all the time I have. I've got some last minute homework to do. And also, my other story about the Headless Horseman, I'll try to update that soon... if I could just get some bloody reviews on it! but anyway... until next time, ciao!


	7. Suspicions of a NotSoTeenaged Prince

Chapter 7

A few days slugged on by and my condition did nothing but get worse. My fever skyrocketed and the vomiting was so bad it was painful. And I mean painful to the point where I would cry almost every time. My stomach was rejecting everything that went in it except water. For the past two days I had been experiencing a series of terrible headaches that were so bad all I could do was curl up in the feeble position and cry and hope it would be over soon.

With each new ailment, everyone grew increasingly concerned over me. At least, everyone who cared about me, anyway. The prince stayed with me at first, only leaving when there was something very pressing on his shoulders. Whenever one of those headaches would strike, he was usually there to pick me up, cradle me in his lap and try to comfort me until the pain subsided. Jericho didn't much break from his normal routine. He would come in, stand off to the side and watch me carefully for a while, coming over to hold my hand whenever one of my symptoms started.

By the end of the week, every physician in Babylon must've looked at me and not a single one of them could figure out what was wrong. They gave me tonics and medicines and tried every remedy they could think of but nothing worked. Didn't surprise me much, I can tell you that. I kept trying to tell everyone that if anyone would be able to figure out what was going on, it would be an Angel doctor, but it seemed like every time I opened my mouth to try and give helpful advice, my voice would be gone or I would throw up before I could get the words out. This was about the time that they started kicking everyone out of the room, in case whatever I had was contagious.

So far only one medicine seemed to be working for me. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but it helped settle my stomach whenever it started preparing itself for another throw up fest.

Also, according to what the Prince had told me, Jericho had thoroughly inspected the kitchen and kept a very close watch on the food that was brought to me. Jericho has been pretty quiet about it, so I'm not entirely certain of what was happening.

But in other news…

"SOMEONE KILL ME!" I cried and heaved painfully once again for what could've been the millionth time thus far. "JUST KILL ME NOW!" My voice faltered and I heaved again… and again… and again until my stomach was empty and felt like it was ready to burst open. But even then, I continued to dry heave until my body settled down and I was left in silent tears, my voice too tired to sob. The Prince, who was hear against the orders of the doctors that I should be quarantined, once again gathered me in his arms and hugged me to his chest "Put me out of my misery…" I moaned pathetically. He reached over to the bed-side table and grabbed the glass of water that was there.

"Be quiet, Naomi," he hushed me, holding the glass to my lips. "Drink." I quickly cupped my shivering hands over the glass and the hand he held it with and gulped it down, eager to sooth the horrid pain in my throat and stomach, but the Prince put a stop to that immediately. "Slowly!" I admit he'd been rather firm with me since I'd gotten worse. He still pretty much catered to my every need, but when it came to things that would affect my health even more, he wouldn't budge an inch. Like now.

After a good, long drink, he set the glass back down and held me close to him again, gently stroking my tangled mess of hair. I let my eyes fall shut and I breathed heavily for a moment as my brain kind of wandered away, leaving me in a sort of grayish cloud of uncertainty. For a moment, my senses went numb and I kinda… disconnected from reality. I felt… dazed. Disoriented. Confused. Then all of the sudden my senses came back to me and I felt arms around me… wait, who is that? What's going on here?

"Wha… where…" I mumbled incoherently. My vision was really blurry and my tongue was just kinda sitting there doing nothing. I couldn't think properly. Something touched my cheek… a hand? Was that my hand? Someone whispering… can't make out the words… am I talking to myself? Is that my voice?

"Wha… where… ?" Is _that_ my voice?

"Naomi, is the fever getting to you again?" Who…? Fever…? What…?

"What's…?"

"It is getting to you. Don't get excited or you'll vomit again." Ok… if you say so…

"Is she disoriented again?" A new voice…

"Yes. She'll be over it in a minute." I heard a sigh.

"This isn't getting us anywhere… It's been a week and she's only gotten worse… I must be overlooking something."

"Perhaps it isn't poison at all."

"She's showing all the right symptoms..."

"If you are so convinced of this, why don't you tell Father?" A pregnant pause.

"I-I want to keep this as quiet as possible. I mean, Father would start an open investigation, which would only make it harder to find the culprit. I know you think I sound like an idiot, but..." At last I reconnected with the world and opened my eyes. My senses slowly came back, though still a bit hazy.

"Prince…?" I said quietly. He looked down at me.

"What is it, Naomi?" I scrunched my nose up.

"It smells bad in here."

"I don't smell anything," the Prince said, looking around oddly, which made me giggle. He was just used to it by now.

"Actually… it does," Jericho agreed.

"It's me isn't it?" I squeaked. "I smell bad, don't I?"

"You're ill, Nay," the Prince replied, "I probably smell, too, being in here for so long."

"It would be a good idea to go bathe," Jericho suggested, "It might help Naomi recover."

"Are you sure it's safe to move her?"

"It should be… With all that vomiting, I don't think she has anything left."

"Bones," I chimed in half-heartedly. Jericho gave a slight smile and shook his head.

"If she's well enough to make jokes, she should be able to take a bath," he justified. "You should too, brother."

"I can't just leave her," the Prince protested. Aww, he cares!

"I will take care of her, don't worry." The Prince still looked a little uncertain, but he knew that Jericho was right: both of us needed baths. Finally, he stood up with me in his arms and handed me over to his brother. He didn't say anything, just left a kiss on my forehead and was out the door.

Jericho, true to his word, ordered a small, private bath for me in the nearest Baths room. When it was ready, he carried me to there. The servants helped me undress and get in. I blushed at first, since I wasn't used to other people helping me get naked, but in my condition, I could barely even walk. For a while, I sat in silence and I meekly attempted to bathe myself. The hot, steamy atmosphere helped with my headache, and my stomach actually settled down somewhat. After my weak attempt at cleaning up, I just sat on the ledge that ran along the inside of the bath (the damn thing was literally big enough to swim in) and tried to relax.

But that only lasted until Jericho decided to invade my privacy. Or at least, the privacy of me and the few servants that were waiting on me.

"I'll take it from here, ladies," he told the servant girls. They bowed respectfully and left the room, leaving the two of us completely alone. For some reason, the idea of he and I alone, with me completely undressed made my breath catch. The fact that he was so silent behind me made it even worse.

"Naomi," he finally said, his voice very quiet. "W-would you mind if I joined you?" I felt my cheek turn hot. Join me? As in, in the water? ...Naked?

"Uh... no?" What else could I do? Refuse? Oh, something tells me this is going to be one of those incredibly uncomfortable moments that make people want to crawl under rocks and never, ever come out. He didn't reply, but I heard him start moving around behind me, and my cheeks burned hotter in anticipation. A moment later, out of the corner of my eye, I saw him slip his bare legs into the water next to me. I quickly turned to other way, trying to hide the redness in my face and I subconsciously folded my arms over my chest.

"I'm sorry if I'm... making you uncomfortable," he told me. "But I wanted to speak to you..."

"I-it's ok," I said, though I wasn't so sure I meant it. Come on, Naomi, don't be immature... it's just a naked man... Oooh... an incredibly _sexy_ naked man... who happens to be the Prince's older brother... Deciding to be bold, I turned toward him, and what I found made me feel like the biggest fool on the planet. He was still dressed. The only thing missing was his boots, and his pants were rolled up to the knee. I silently berated myself.

"Naomi, may I ask you something?" he finally spoke up after a long, incredibly awkward silence. I restrained myself from jumping. Head out of the gutter, Naomi...

"Sure… what?" I answered.

"What do you think of Dalila?" I stopped. The question had caught me completely off-guard, but I was incredibly relieved. Dalila? Should I tell him the truth, that she creeps me out to no end? How exactly was he asking the question? I doubt it's referring to any type of romantic relationship… should I just lie and say I don't know?

"I… she… uh…" I blabbered, unsure how to answer. But I finally decided on the truth. "She… really… freaks me out." He stayed quiet for a moment. Uh oh, did I say the wrong thing?

"So you feel it as well, then," he finally said. Relief flooded me. "That there's something… not quite right with her. That's good, it isn't just me after all."

"Uh, pardon my ignorance, but what are you getting at?"

"Ever since she first came here, something about her has rubbed me the wrong way… I can't put my finger on it," he turned around and looked at me straight in the eye and dropped his voice. "Just between the two of us, I've been keeping a careful watch on her… I've seen some things that I don't like."

"Things? Like what?"

"When I first returned here, I noticed that she has a way of sweet-talking the guards and servants to do what she asks of them. Much worse, she has the same power over my father. I think that's how she was able to stay here."

"She's been sweet talking the King?" Temporarily forgetting about the awkwardness of the situation, I turned to him. My stomach gave a small lurch of protest. Jericho nodded solemnly.

"I don't like what I've been seeing," he said firmly with a look to match. "And I also find it a little more than convenient that as soon as my brother tells her what good friends you are, you suddenly fall ill."

I dropped my gaze, feeling too sick to be surprised. Ugh, I could already feel another headache coming on.

"So… you think she's behind it? My being sick, I mean." I asked, trying to get all of this straight in my mind.

"I can't be certain, but if you ask me, she's either responsible, or knows who is. But listen to me. From now on, stay away from her. If you see her coming, turn around and walk the other way. Don't talk to her, don't deal with her, and make sure that you're never alone with her. And until this mess is sorted out, I don't want you going off alone. Make sure than either me, Sora or Father is with you at all times, alright?" I swallowed the lump in my throat, not sure how I felt about that. But… if it was for my own safety…

"Alright. I promise." He smiled and brushed my hair away from my face. My skin tingled where he had touched me. That same feeling I'd had when I'd met him was slowly coming back now. The fever was dulling it, but it was there... like somehow, I needed him with me.

"Good." He was quiet again. "...Listen... I..." he stopped, suddenly sounding nervous. "...How do you feel now?"

"A-a little better. But I think I'm going to need to lay down soon."

"I see." I hear him inhale sharply. I looked over at him, and saw that he was... trembling?

"Are you alright?"

"Yes," he answered quickly. A little too quickly.

"You're shaking." He turned away.

"...Listen, Naomi... There's something I want to tell you... because for some odd reason, I feel like... I can trust you."

"Is that why you're shaking? Anxiety?" He swallowed.

"Yes, actually. I'm afraid my social skills are... very lacking. It takes me a while to get comfortable around people. Or in a conversation. That's why I tend to keep to myself."

"So that's why you weren't there?" I asked, something suddenly clicking in my mind.

"Why I wasn't where?" he inquired, his face full of confusion.

"At the big 'welcome home' feast for the Prince and I," I told him. His gaze fell.

"Oh... well, yes, that's part of it." He sighed. "I'm not very good with large crowds. I'm sorry that I couldn't see my brother, but..." he left it at that. "Well, it isn't important."

"Ok... so what was it you wanted to tell me?" He shifted his position closer to me, and looked around as if to make sure we were really alone.

"Don't take this the wrong way." He lowered his voice. "I know what you are." My face went completely blank for a moment and a slew of questions swarmed my mind. How did he know? I hadn't said anything! I'd been careful about hiding my charm! Oh great, this could only mean super trouble for me now. I could not have this getting out. If everyone in Babylon knew I was an Angel...

"...How do you know...?" I whispered, premature panic slowly sinking in.

"Don't be alarmed. To be perfectly honest, it was your hair that gave you away to me, along with the little charm you wear. Humans wouldn't notice, of course. They just think you're from some distant land where everything is different. But to another Angel, those things are dead giveaways." He gave me a comforting smile. It took my overheated brain a moment to realize what he was saying, and another moment to realize _exactly_ what he was saying.

"...You're an Angel," I said softly, but firmly. He nodded.

"On my mother's side, yes. But no one knows about it except my father. Please don't tell anyone."

"I won't, I promise. If I did, then both of us would be in hot water."

"In case you didn't notice, we are in hot water," he said, gesturing around the room. I shot him a look.

"Don't try to be funny. I'm serious." He chuckled lightly.

"Sorry, I couldn't help myself." I groaned as my stomach did another flipflop.

"...I think I need to lay down." Without hesitating, Jericho hoisted himself out of the bath, and then took my hands and pulled me out. My legs refused to work, however, and I stumbled forward. Lucky for me, he caught me before I could hit the ground, and likely end up taking him down with me. He kept a firm grip on me as I tried and failed several times to right myself, and the more I did that, the more nauseous I started to feel. Finally, I ran out of energy and fell to my knees.

"Naomi...?" Jericho's voice was very concerned now. "You're shaking." I shut my eyes in attempt to keep myself from getting dizzier than I already was. When I didn't respond, Jericho smoothly scooped me up in his arms and walked over to a corner with a bunch of fluffy pillows and set me down. "Just relax and try to control your breathing. Don't think about the nausea." I did what he said, except trying not to think about feeling sick, only made me think about it even more. I opened my eyes to tell him I wasn't feeling much better, I almost immediately wished I hadn't. Jericho kneeling over me, and my lack of clothes made me feel vulnerable.

"Uh..." Oh crap, I'm naked... Oh crap, he's handsome... Oh _crap_ he's _touching_ me...

He felt my forehead and checked my pulse, and then left my side in order to pull his pants on, probably because he noticed my discomfort. When he came back, he pulled me into a sitting position and wrapped his black overcoat around my shoulders, "How's that?"

"Better. Thank you."

"Do you think you can dress yourself? I'm afraid I can't be of much help, but I can call one of the attendants."

"I think I can manage. Getting dressed on the floor is a skill I mastered back in school." Jericho smirked, and my god, did it look good on him.

"Let me guess. You chronically oversleep?" I nodded, and he chuckled. After he brought me my clothes, I did the best I could to put them on and Jericho, fully dressed as well, carried me back to my room.

The bath really helped me out. My fever went down and I felt much better the whole rest of the day. I was even well enough to attempt eating again. I had a pretty big dinner, considering my condition, and took my tonic to keep my stomach settled and afterwords, the Prince read me several more chapters from my book. As always, I conked out while he was reading. For a moment I thought it was over and I would be back on my feet in no time. Well…

It was the middle of the night when it happened. It started with a fever dream, which woke me up. Everyone has different types of fever dreams… mine were usually of falling and horrible smells and sounds. My head hurt a little and my stomach was kinda queasy… I figured it was just my body trying to recover from the dream, since it had been pretty vivid, so I just lay still, waiting for it to go away. It didn't. The small queasy feeling in my stomach slowly grew to nausea. My chin started to tremble and my throat began to constrict. I knew what was coming. So, I pulled myself over to the side of the bed and leaned over in anticipation…

The headache came. It hit me so hard I nearly fell out of bed. The ridiculous intensity of the pain blinded me. My ears started to ring. My head felt so heavy and so hot… Memories of that dream came back to me… The sensation of falling… The god-awful scent of rotting flesh, vomit and chemicals returned to my nostrils… I could already feel tears falling down my cheeks.

This was cruel. This was inhumane. It was pure torture! I couldn't stand it. So many tormenting elements all being added in at once… I couldn't take it… I'm gonna puke. I'm gonna puke. I'm so gonna puke… Can't stand it… vomit coming… Gods, that smell… gonna throw up…

I opened my mouth…

"PRINCE!" And I threw up.

My temperature reached an all time high. My stomach was empty and I was frozen to the bone. I was shivering violently, clutching at my blankets, trying to get warm. There was a cool wet cloth over my forehead now, but the way my head was feeling, it wasn't going to stay cool for very long.

Even though my ears were still ringing, I could hear the conversation going on around me. The Prince and Jericho had heard me scream and rushed to my aid. Let me tell you, it seemed like forever until the whole thing finally passed. But it left me feeling very beaten and drained. I didn't hear much of what the two men were saying; too busy trying to get rid of that awful chill I had. But when they finished their discussion, the Prince reluctantly headed back to his own bedroom while Jericho hung back.

The older prince sat on the bed next to me and felt my cheek, then moved the cloth and felt my forehead.

"You're burning up, Angel," he said softly.

"…It's so cold…" I murmured, trying to control my chattering teeth.

"Can't do much about that, sorry," he replied.

"…My tonic…" I said cracking one eye open as my stomach gave a small lurch. "Where is it?"

"Tonic…?" Jericho gave a quick puzzled look and glanced around, eventually spotting the small bottle on my nightstand. He picked it up and examined the unmarked container. "This?"

'"Yes…" I weakly reached for it. "It usually helps…" He took the cap off, still studying the bottle closely, and sniffed the top, only to cringe and turn away. I tried to reach for it again, but he stopped me.

"Wait for just a moment, Naomi…" he told me and turned away, and reluctantly put the bottle rim to his lips and took a drink of it, only to come away looking like he'd swallowed a flask of vinegar.

"What are you…? What did you do that for?" I asked, watching him force it down his throat and cough violently.

"I figured as much. Naomi, I want you to stop taking this." He stood up.

"What? Why?" Why would he take away the only thing that actually made me feel better?

"Because this is what's making you sick." He walked out onto the balcony, taking my medicine with him, and in one smooth move, he hurled it over the side. I tried to yell at him, but I only had enough energy to sit up.

"…That was the only thing that helped…" I complained as he came back in, shutting the balcony door behind him.

"I know," he returned to my bedside and sat there a moment before looking at me, his expression like he had just come to a decision. He carefully took my hand and held it comfortingly. "Listen carefully. Tomorrow, I'm going to speak with my father on this matter. Until then, I want you to stay in bed and rest. Don't eat anything they bring up to you, don't drink anything but water, and don't take anymore medicines. Whatever happens, let your body fight this off on its own. Understand?" I swallowed. His grim tone wasn't making me feel much better about my condition. My head suddenly felt like it weighed a ton, and I dropped back onto the pillow.

"Yeah. I get it…" I murmured. His hand came to rest on my forehead again.

"Good girl…" he whispered. "I will have this resolved soon. I promise." He stayed with me for a long time until I was asleep again. This time, I didn't dream at all, and for once, I had what could qualify as a peaceful night's sleep.

Unfortunately, things would only get worse. The next morning, the Prince came into my room looking either regretful, or thankful. I couldn't really tell, since my head was still on fire, which made seeing clearly much more difficult. He sat at my bedside, asked how I was, and then delivered the news.

"Jericho was arrested last night."

* * *

Kiri: And the plot thickens! Woo! What's with Naomi's mysterious sickness? Is it poison? Is Dalila the true culprit? Will Jericho uncover the mystery?! NO ONE KNOWS! WoooOOOooo... anyways, not much time for an FAQ today, guys. Sorry. but hopefully I can get another chapter out to you guys before the end of the weekend. And the reviews are all great! A bit few in number, but still, I love you guys! Keep your eyes peeled for the next chapter! Ciao!


	8. Framed

Chapter 8

Whatever was going on, it was about damn time I got to the bottom of it. After leaving Naomi's room, I returned to my own to gather whatever I would need and headed back out. After tasting what was in the girl's medicine, there was only one possible explanation for her sudden lapse of health and why she was not getting any better. I wasn't completely certain what was going on, but I had a very good idea… and I was sure that Dalila had a lot to do with it.

I paused by Naomi's door when I passed by it. She was sound asleep by now…I should've come completely clean with her earlier about who and what I really was. It would have made earning her trust much easier...

Then again, in the weak state she was in now, it would be easy to take her back to the Heavens like the High Councilor had requested. At least there she could get the medical attention she needed… and so could I, for that matter.

I swallowed hard as my chest suddenly felt tight. Several memories of her, smiling and healthy... Trusting me... It all came to the forefront of my mind. Taking her back to the heavens now seemed like a bad idea. The trip would only be harmful to her in her already extremely delicate state of health, and somehow… the whole idea felt distinctly as though taking her there would be betraying her. No, I couldn't do that. And I won't, damn it! I would wait until she was healthy and then formulate a plan. Besides, I'd made promises to both her and Father. I couldn't just disappear with her.

No. Orders are going to have to wait.

I started down the hall again, trying to keep a blank expression and keep as inconspicuous as possible for the night guard. Not that there was much they could do against a Prince of Persia, especially when I could ground them in five seconds if I had to. My first order of business for the evening was to speak with Dalila and extract whatever knowledge she had about this attempted murder, by force if necessary.

The guest room she was staying in was dark, but the door was left unlocked.

_Don't open the door! _

_She'll find you! She knows you!_

I ground my teeth together. Damn it! I should've taken my medication before coming here. I had to take a minute to pull myself together. Well... I suppose I'll have to keep it together until I can find what I need and get the hell out.

_He's going inside. _

_You fool, do you want to die?_

I furrowed my brow and entered the room as quietly as I could. I don't know what I was expecting to find, but relief flooded through me when I found the room to be empty. But while I was relieved she wasn't here, it could only mean that she was out roaming about the palace doing who the hell-knows-what. She could return at any moment and find me here. Then things would _damn_ get ugly. My heart started pounding at the idea of being discovered here, and I suddenly couldn't shake the feeling that someone was with me.

Okay, get a grip on yourself, Jericho... Don't get paranoid now... Just search the room and get the hell out. Simple.

I gulped hard and started looking around for something that might prove incriminating. Something that would link her to what was happening to Naomi. I worked quickly, sweeping through drawers and storage areas, checking every suspicious nook and cranny, all the while becoming more anxious. There had to be_ something_ here. If she was what I suspected, she should have it...

_You waste of space. _

_They're going to find you. _

I didn't find anything, much less what I was specifically looking for. It wasn't here. Hm... She must have it with her.

I hurried out of the room, staying as quiet as I could, and walked quickly down the corridor. My adrenaline started to fade as I got farther away from it, but the thought of her wandering the palace made me worry. She had something to do with Naomi's illness. What other reason would she have to be up at this hour of the night? I had to find her. But where the hell do I start?

I turned a corner, but stopped dead when I looked up. The hall was darker than the others since some of the torches had gone out, but that wasn't what made me stop.. What got me was the movement I saw just beyond the shadows. Claws... or at least, they looked like claws... I stood still, trying to calm myself before turning around and heading in the other direction. There were no clawed monsters in the palace. If there were, the entire palace guard would be here, fighting it off. Besides... how would it even get in the palace in the first place?

"It isn't real... it isn't real..." I knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be. My paranoia is getting to me... that's all. I walked as fast as my legs would take me, every so often looking back over my shoulder. But that lasted until I turned another corner and crashed into somebody at full pace. Needless to say, it scared the hell out of me, and I jumped back and ripped my weapon from it's sheath, ready to fight. Then I looked down at whoever it was that I'd nearly run over.

"Dalila," I said flatly. How fortunate. Now I wouldn't have to walk all over the palace. She looked up at me just as I was putting my dagger away.

"Your highness! Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I wasn't looking!" Maybe to anyone else, that would've been convincing.

"No, the fault is mine," I told her, deciding it best to play along for the moment. I bent down and extended my hand to help her up, which she accepted.

"These corridors are so dark at night. It's almost spooky," she said, her voice dropping.

"Then why are you up wandering about the palace at this hour?" I asked, maybe a little more boldly than I'd intended.

"Oh, well..." she suddenly looked uncomfortable, and began fidgeting, protectively fingering the necklace she had on. "I lost my medallion earlier. I went to look for it... I don't know what I would've done if someone else had found it!"

_Get away from her!_

_She's a part of the plot!_

_Don't talk to her!_

"Well, since we're both up, why don't I escort you back to your room?" I offered. Now I would get to the bottom of all of this.

"Oh, I don't want to trouble you, your highness. I can manage on my own."

"Please, I insist."

_Don't do it! _

_No! _

"Well... alright." I offered my arm to her like a true gentleman would... and I felt sick. We walked back to her room. Neither of us spoke along the way, so I used the time to figure out my next move. I'd been right about one thing: she had what I'd been looking for with her. Now all I had to do was get my hands on it. But what would be the best way of doing so? I couldn't just smack her upside the head, take her down and then take it! I needed to be sneaky about it. I needed to take it without her noticing.

Upon reaching the door to her room, she released my arm and stood in front of me, her gaze downcast, "Thank you for the company, my Prince." I stepped closer and leaned forward a little. Maybe if I was charming enough, she'd invite me in.

"No, I should be thanking you," I said softly, with a little bit of vomit in the back of my throat. "It's a little embarrassing to say this, but my imagination tends to run away with me at times." She looked up at me with an innocent smile, which I returned with a smile of my own. "Well," I took her hand and placed a lingering kiss on the back of it, "Goodnight." I started to turn, when she caught my shoulder.

"Your Highness, wait." I turned back to her with an inquiring look. "...Would you like to come in? Just for a moment?" Bingo. I plastered on a knowing smile.

_No! _

_She'll kill you!_

_Don't go inside!  
_

"I would love to." I said with a hint of sarcasm, almost forgetting my role as a gentleman to this chattering harlot.

The second the door shut behind us, Dalila's arms encircled my neck and she eagerly pulled me down into a fiery kiss. I can't even begin to describe how good at it she was. Well, of course she's undoubtedly had plenty of practice... but even so, if I hadn't been there for the sole purpose of finding Naomi's would-be assassin, I would not have hesitated to take advantage of the opportunity. But that aside, I played along for a while, letting my hands wander, following her lead until I was sure she wouldn't notice what I was about to do.

She had no idea that I was an Angel. And as an Angel, I knew that there were certain things that both Angels and Demons did in order to blend in with humans. One of those things was the charms we wore to hide our wings in. Angels wore charms. Demons, on the other hand, wore medallions, much like the one Miss Dalila had on right now. Careful not to induce her suspicion, I carefully brought the amulet into my palm and ran my thumb over the center jewel. After a moment, I dropped it again and opened my eyes... and then pulled away from her laughing.

"...What's funny?" she asked, confused.

"I knew it," I said triumphantly. "I knew there was something funny about you. Your game is finished, you little succubus." Her eyes widened and she looked over her shoulder, seeing the large bat-like wings that had spouted there, thanks to my maneuver. Her expression went from surprise, to shock, to pure rage.

"You horrible miscreant! How did you know about me?" she demanded, trying to push me away. But I kept my arms locked tightly around her.

"It wasn't hard to figure it out. Naomi is an Angel, and someone has been poisoning her by putting demonic blood in her food and her medicine. There's only one woman I can think of who's bled in the kitchens." She growled threateningly. "How long did you think you would get away with it? Either I'm a very good undercover operative, or you are just plain unobservant and careless. Personally, I like to believe it's the first."

"Let go of me!" she shouted, "LET ME GO!" I kept my grip tight, which became increasingly difficult as she began using her real strength against me.

"No. First, you're going to answer to my father. Then you're going to answer to the Hunters-" Unfortunately, I never got the chance to finish that sentence because Dalila, in attempt to get free, punched me in the jaw as hard as she could, which was pretty damn hard. Hard enough to knock me right off my feet. Ugh... Note to Self: monologue to the enemy will more than likely end in pain. After seeing stars for a minute, Dalila stood over me, her gorgeous feminine frame silhouetted by the moonlight flooding in through the window. ...I have a bad feeling about this.

"Fine, then. We'll play it your way. But just remember, you brought this on yourself, Sharaman." The next thing I knew, her foot collided with my face and I was out.

* * *

Kiri: Oh, dear, Jericho is in trouble now.

Jericho: The Bitch kicked me in the face!

Kiri: Get over it. But anyway, things are getting pretty heated now, aren't they? Heh. Well, I'm happy to say that the editing process is going rather smoothly. as you all might have noticed by now, I've changed up Jericho's character a little and given him a brand new problem to torture- erm, I mean, live with.

Q: Kiri, what's with all the text in italics?

A: Well, that I'm not telling. But it should be kinda easy to figure out on your own... if you just use your brain a little.

Q: Does this have to do with Jericho's 'new' problem?

A: Yep! And to be honest, I think it's made him much more interesting. Well, to me at least.

Q: So once again, you expand on Dalila's increadible level of bitch-ism?

A: Yeah... I kinda felt that she wasn't much of an antagonist at first. But now I'm gonna add a little more to her segment.

Kiri: Oh, but we're out of time! I've got some more stuff to finish up because I have school tomorrow! Yay! Not. It sure would be nice if I got a review, or two... just to tell me whether you guys actually like my new stuff... So until next time... (singing) So long! Farewell! Until we meet again...!


	9. Talk in the Dark

Chapter 9

After the Prince relayed the story to me, I just laid in bed and seethed. That Dalila... who did she think she was?

Apparently, she'd met Jericho in the middle of the night and invited him into her room, where he'd tried and failed to rape her. She'd relayed a big elaborate story to the King and the palace guard about how lucky she'd been and how she'd just barely manage to knock him out and run away.

Well, I didn't believe a word of it, and I told the Prince as much. Jericho was innocent. That was something that I just... knew.

As a result, I kept my promise to him. I hardly ate anything and stopped taking my medicine. If I did eat something, I made sure that it had come directly from the kitchen to the Prince to me. I wasn't taking any chances. And I'll be damned if it didn't work. My fever went down, my stomach settled and the headaches diminished. My color returned, and I was soon able to sit up in bed and talk to people.

But of course, Dalila had also brought to the King's attention that she suspected the his own son was behind my illness, and only used my recovery as further proof that Jericho had poisoned me. And of course, everyone started to believe her. Even the Prince had his doubts. But no matter what everyone believed, I had to talk to Jericho. I had to find out just what the hell was going on. And with all the rising opposition against the poor Persian royal, it looked like I would have to do it in secret. But how was I going to do that when he was locked in his room with guards at the door?

It only took just a couple more days of throwing up for my fever to break. I guess angels' immune systems are stronger than humans or something, but it was nice to finally be able to move around normally without puking. The Prince of course, was overjoyed to hear that I was finally at a normal temperature and that I would be back on my feet after just a little more rest. So overjoyed, in fact, that he had a difficult time keeping his smile back as he read more of my book to me that evening.

When it was finally time to call it a day, he gave me a big, long hug and a lingering kiss on the cheek before slowly walking out, turning back to smile at me a couple times. I couldn't sleep that night, though. I was too wired and my mind wouldn't settle down. I don't know why I was so certain that Jericho was innocent. Maybe it was because I knew that there was something wrong with Dalila, or maybe it was because Jericho was also an angel and I'd found that I could trust him a little more than anyone else. Either way, I had to get him out of jail. And out of this mess Dalila had him in. But how?

I thought on this for about fifteen minutes without coming up with anything. There was no way I would be able to help Jericho by myself. I mean, I'm only one me.

_Tap tap tap tap._

Blinking, I sat up in bed and looked around.

_Tap tap tap._

The noise was coming from the balcony, and I could make out a strange shadow being cast from the side. For the first time in who knows how long, I lifted my blankets off and sat up, swinging my legs over the side, every so often looking back at the balcony doors. Careful not to make any noise, I hoisted myself up to stand… and fell flat on my face. Crap! I forgot... I hadn't used my legs for a while, so they weren't as strong anymore.

Sighing, I slowly began to get back up. I wobbled around a lot and had to use the nightstand for support while my legs got used to carrying me again. After managing to steady myself, I let go of the nightstand and bent my knees slightly. I almost fell over again, but I stayed on my feet. Then I took a few practice steps bfore wobbling my way to the richly designed glass doors, pulling on my robe along the way.

It was a warm night, thankfully. I didn't quite fancy getting out of my nice warm bed to walk out onto a freezing cold balcony for lord-knows-why. The sky was pretty clear, too, and I could see clear over the city and far off into the distance. Heh, compared to the cities I used to know, Babylon was very small.

"Naomi!" I quickly focused my investigation on the all-too-familiar voice, and a big smile lit up my face. Jericho was perched on the railing, a large pair of bright red wings folded up behind him. Upon my seeing him, he gracefully jumped down to his feet and embraced me tightly. I returned it with a hug of my own.

"You're alright!" I said excitedly, "I thought you were in prison!" He scoffed.

"Not even close. They can't throw me in prison. I'm royal. They just locked me in my room and stationed guards outside. For all the good it did them," he told me.

"Well that's a relief. I was worried that they might've..."

"I was worried that Dalila had finished the job while I was stuck picking locks." He looked at me seriously. "It was her. I was right, Dalila is a demon, and she was using her blood to poison you. The only reason I'm being blamed for it is because I blew her cover and threatened to sell her out to the Hunters."

"Well... after I heard about your arrest, I stopped eating. As you can see, it worked pretty well."

"I can't tell you how glad I am to see you on your feet and healthy."

"Except that Dalila's just using that to prove it was you, and I can't do anything until... well, I can't really do anything. Sorry..." He put his hand under my chin.

"Cheer up, Angel. Could be worse. You could be dead right now."

"I guess."

"Hey, we'll figure something out. Chances are, once I get the chance to talk to my father, this will clear up. Why would he believe some concubine harpy over his own son?"

"I wish I could be as confident as you. If that were true, why has he waited this long to see you?" Jericho's expression fell into knowing exasperation.

"You're probably right. Evidently, Dalila has a way of manipulating people... If she's used this against Father..." he sighed. "Well, worst case scenario, I get blamed for all of this. They still can't throw me in prison, and even if they did, I could break out easily. So don't worry about me." He gave me an encouraging smile and ran his thumb over my cheek.

"Easy for you to say." A heavy silence fell between us and I found myself staring thoughtlessly into his eyes. He was doing the same, but somehow I doubt he realized it. And oddly enough, I had no desire to break the connection. I could've stood there like that forever if it were possible. Then that feeling came back... that feeling I'd had when I'd first met him. The feeling that I'd known him for a long time, and that I'd been waiting for him to return... My heart suddenly ached with longing. I suddenly wanted more than to just stand there with him in my arms. I wanted hold him so tight that he couldn't leave. I wanted to keep my arms around him until the world wasted away around us. I never wanted him to let go of me.

"...Naomi," he whispered, as if afraid to break the intensity of the moment. "...Do you feel that?" So he did feel it too. well, at least now I know I'm not losing my mind.

"Yes. I do," I whispered back, my voice just as breathless as his. "What is it?" Not that it mattered much right now.

"I don't know." We both held each other tighter, becoming slaves to these unknown feelings. Everything now seemed like it was far away, and that Jericho and I were now within a world of our own where nothing mattered but us. But that feeling of waiting was persistent. There was something I wanted him to do... something I couldn't place.

"I don't know what's going on," he told me, still breathless, "but I want to kiss you." Kiss me? My heart ached again with need. Yes, that was it. That's what I wanted. "May I?" My heart pounded in anticipation.

"...Please," I told him, getting up on my toes. Without hesitating, he dipped his head the rest of the way and bound us in a powerful lip-lock. Something inside of me seemed to click into place as soon as his lips touched mine. I didn't know what it was, but I felt immensely satisfied over whatever it had done.

Unfortunately, those few glorious moments came to an unwilling end.

"It's getting late," he said quietly, almost sadly. "I shouldn't keep you up any later. You're still recovering." As badly as I wanted to argue and tell him to stay, I couldn't. He was right.

"When will I see you again?" I asked, my voice melancholy, but hopeful.

"... As soon as I can sneak out again. It will be soon, I promise."

"I 'm going to try and help you as much as I can. The next chance I get, I'll tel the King that you're innocent and Dalila falsely accused you," I told him, but he shook his head.

"No, don't get yourself into trouble over me. besides, if they found out you've spoken with me, Dalila will just tell him that I scared you into lying for me or something. No, for the time being we'll just have to let whatever is going to happen happen and look for a way to liberate her from the palace."

"So what do I do, then?" He hesitated.

"Watch your back and be very, very careful."

"Alright, then. But you be careful to, ok?" Jericho smiled.

"Look who you're talking to, darling. Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." With those words, he took my hand and looked my right in the eye. Another blissful silence fell over us. All I could hear was my own heart thumping in my chest and our breathing. But I was too preoccupied with trying to read his mind through those blue eyes of his to really notice how quiet it was. For a moment, I thought he would kiss me again.

"I'll come back as soon as I can."

"I know. I'll see you then."

The warm desert night now felt cold and lonely. I went back inside, my entire body wishing he would come back. That night, I fell asleep with Jericho's name on my lips.

* * *

Kiri: Ok, before I do anything, I have to say this. The Dark Prince is coming, yes, no fanfic would be complete without him, but if I keep getting pestered about it, I'll just keep delaying him. One individual (you know who you are) keeps asking the same annoying question and I'm getting REAL tired of it. I appreciate your reviews and the fact that you take the time to read my work, but seriously, you need to let it go already. I'll get the the Dark Prince when I get to him and demands only give me more incentive to delay.

Naomi: Are you done now? I'm bored.

Kiri: Oh hush. On a more positive note, I've almost beat Kingdom Heart 2 again! Yay!

Mike: Again?

Kiri: Yes, again. and I've leveled Sora up to level 50, too. I never got that far before. And poor Axel! I almost cried when he died!

Mike: ...get over it.

Kiri: I liked Axel! Why did he have to kick the bucket-- hey, maybe I'll write a Kingdom Hearts fic after this!

Naomi: Let me guess... another impossible romance story?

Kiri: Damn skippy! (sighs dreamily and starts fantasizing about Axel and Naomi kissing)

Naomi: (sigh) Absolutely hopeless. Well, I guess we won't be doing another FAQ, since our authoress probably won't snap out of it for a while. she's working on the next chapter already, though, so hopefully you won't have to wait long. Until then, uh... see ya.


	10. Falling Out

Chapter 10

The gossips of the next day really pissed me off. Dalila was having all kinds of fun with poor Jericho and he was absolutely helpless to defend himself, being stuck in his room.

"Did you hear that it was really Prince Jericho who tried to kill that girl?"

"Yes. How could he do such a thing to such a pretty, sweet thing like her?"

"Well, I've worked here for a long time, and I can tell you, he always was a little strange."

"Not to mention how he almost raped poor Dalila in the middle of the night. The poor dear. She was lucky she got away. Word is that none of the palace guards have ever bested him!"

I just bit my tongue and tried to keep calm, like Jericho had told me to do. But I'm telling you, it was HARD to do. Finally, I just decided that enough was enough. I had to dispel this ridiculousness once and for all! But how? Well, I had an idea…

I eyed the food that had been brought to me only a few minutes ago. Undoubtedly, it was tainted with demon blood. My stomach rumbled as the aroma hit my nose and my mouth watered. Oh, I was starved, but the idea of getting sick all over again really didn't appeal to me one bit. Then again, if I did get sick again, what would that do to Dalila's rumors? How would she even be able to pin it to Jericho if he's safely locked up in the prisons?

Believe me, I had half a mind to jump on that tray and start shoveling it in.

Eventually, that's exactly what I did. Screw that bitch in red, I was gonna get sick again with a vengeance! The rest of the day I ate like a pig and made a point to ask for seconds during my dinner. When evening fell, I sat and waited. I waited and waited for my stomach to leap into my throat and heave up everything I'd taken in that day… but nothing happened. Even after the Prince had finished telling me how glad he was that I was better now and that the King was so happy to hear of my recovery that he was already planning a huge feast in my honor and blah blah blah. Nothing. Which could only mean one thing: the food wasn't poisoned.

That Dalila was crafty…

I was back on my feet the next day. I didn't care how much the Prince protested, I was feeling way to antsy to spend another day in bed doing nothing. As a result, he followed me around like a little lost puppy dog most of the day, making sure I really was okay. Admirable, but a bit annoying.

That evening was when the King had planned his big dinner for me. I admit, I was flattered by it, but still, he didn't have to go to such lengths for little ol' me. It also meant that I would have to wear my gown. Goodbye, comfy tunic and pants… but still, I guess I could kinda see how the gown Danisha had picked out for me worked so well… but did she have to make it so… revealing? I felt self conscious just standing by the mirror…

The dress was a halter-top, but the back was wide open and cut a little lower than I would've liked. It was slit up to my thigh on the left leg and obviously made to show off my calf. The top was pretty descent, but it showed a bit too much cleavage for my liking. But even so, looking at it from a man's point of view, I guess I was a knock-out.

"Hello there, beautiful," came a voice out of nowhere that startled me so much I nearly leapt back ten feet. The Prince stood only a little ways away, his arms folded, grinning about the fact that he'd managed to get the jump on me. He was shirtless, and clutching something in his hand.

"Where the hell did you come from?!" I cried, trying to calm myself. He pointed his thumb back behind him to the balcony doors.

"I found the key for it," he explained. I raised an eyebrow.

"Prince, you better not even dare get any ideas now, because if you come in here in the middle of the night and try to snuggle, it won't work out very well for you and that's a promise!" I exclaimed. He laughed.

"However appealing that sounds, no, I don't plan on sneaking in at midnight."

"Good!" With that, I turned back to the mirror and looked uneasily at my reflection. He came up behind me.

"You look great. Why are you so self-conscious?" I simply shrugged in response.

"So, where's your outfit? Because if that's it, I hope you have matching pants to go with it," I teased. He just gave me a look.

"Very funny." We were both quiet for a moment. "I have something for you."

"For me? Aw, you shouldn't have." He just smiled and fiddled with something in his hands, then presented a silver chain with a small pendant dangling from it. I had to wait for it to steady before I could see it properly, and when I could see it, I couldn't help but gape. The Pendant itself was just a simple clear jewel outlined in silver. The jewel had a slight tint of light blue to it and was cut in the shape of a teardrop. I lightly touched it as he delicately fastened it around my neck. "Where did you get this…?"

"It was my mother's," he answered, "She left this to me and made a point to tell me to give it to the woman I fell in love with." Hearing this, I felt immensely guilty. He loved me this much? So much that he would give this to me without a second thought? And I didn't—couldn't—love him back…

"Sora… I can't take this… It wouldn't feel right," I protested, but he raised his hand to silence me.

"I know, I know," he said dropping his voice, "your arrangement. But even so…" he lightly brush a strand of hair behind my ear, "I want you to have something to remember me by when you... you know."

"Prince, you're making me feel guilty." His hand came back down from my hair and rest on my cheek.

"We can always fix that…" he whispered, leaning forward all the while. Oh no you don't, buster! I quickly pushed myself back.

"Don't you even!" I cried, "Not after all the painstaking effort that went in to this make up!" He laughed.

"Alright, alright. I'll wait until you take it off." He buried his face in my neck. "Your perfume smells nice."

"I'm not wearing perfume, you weirdo."

"Well, regardless, you smell nice." We stayed like that for a moment before he shifted and his beard, which was now much neater than it was, brushed against my shoulder. I giggled.

"What's so funny?" he asked, not moving.

"Your beard tickles," I said, trying to inch away.

"Oh, it does?" he asked slyly, an all to conspicuous evil glint in his eyes. Oh, crap. He hooked his arm around my hips and started kissing my neck, making a point to brush his chin along my flesh. I, of course, broke into a fit of involuntary giggles and tried to push him away.

"PRINCE, STOHAHAHAHA! NO MOOHOHAHAHAHA!" He pulled me across the room to my bed, where he pinned my down and continued his torture. I kept trying to push him off, but failed every time because I was laughing so hard, and they stopped completely when he snatched my wrists and held them down. "ACK! FOUL PLAY! FOUL PLAYHAYHAHAHAHAHA!" He kept up his treatment until I thought I was going to explode, and he ceased just in time. Any longer and I would've peed myself. He flopped down next to me and spread out, also laughing. "That wasn't very nice, you know," I told him, trying to catch my breath.

"But it was fun," he countered.

"For you, maybe! My dress is probably all wrinkled now thanks to you. And lord only knows what you've done to my hair."

"So go fix it, then."

"In a minute. I have to recover from the heart attack you nearly gave me." Probably just for the sole purpose of getting on my nerves, he turned onto his side, facing me and threw his arm across my chest. I thought about telling him that he was pushing it, but I decided against it. After another moment he inched closer to me and buried his face in my neck again, this time more out of affection than playfulness. I briefly entertained the idea of taking my revenge right then and there, but, somehow, I just didn't have the heart to anymore. Oh well, I'll get him back later.

Finally, I sighed, figuring that now might be a good time to bring up a more serious matter.

"Prince, you know that what we have can't last forever," I told him. His shoulders slumped.

"...I know."

"So, don't you think it would be better to start breaking it off now, rather than going through one massive heartbreak later?" He didn't reply. "...Prince?"

"I don't want to break it off," he finally said, his voice muffled by his hair. "I don't want to lose you."

"We'll still be friends. And you'll find someone else. Someone more suitable to be your wife."

"That's just it, Naomi!" he said, lifting his head to look at me. "All the time we've spent together, everything we went through… I can't see you as just a close friend, or a sister! No matter how hard I try to fall out of love with you, I just can't do it!" I shook my head.

"I don't know what to tell you, Prince," I replied, not sure whether I wanted to pity him or scold him.

"I just don't understand you," he continued, "after everything we've gone through together, how can you not love me like I love you? How can you still look at me and only see a simple friend, when I look at you and can't help but visualize you as my wife?" Oh, dear… something told me that this wasn't going to end well. Maybe I should've kept my mouth shut.

"It's not a matter of how I feel, it's a matter of how much trouble I'll be in if I don't do what I'm supposed to." I answered, trying to lighten to situation.

"Damn it, Naomi," he was way, WAY too close for comfort. He lowered his voice again to a whisper, "I love you…" He leaned in again for a kiss, but there was no way I was about to let him get away with this one. No way. I turned my head to the side as far as my neck would allow and tried to push him back again.

"Prince! Don't you dare ruin my make up!" I exclaimed, trying (and failing) to push him back. Instead of my lips, the Prince found my neck, which I guess didn't make a bit of different to him. He kissed it all the same. As soon as his lips touched my skin a pleasant shiver coursed down my spine, extracting a small gasp out of me. That only encouraged him, though. Damn him…! Why did he have to pick tonight of all nights? I had to stop him and quick! But damn it, that felt so… NO! Naomi, snap out of it!

Biting my lip, I went back to trying to get out of his grasp. I pushed, I shoved, I squirmed, but it didn't seem to make much difference. He had me stuck where I was, but good.

"Prince, seriously," I tried, but he obviously wasn't listening. He just slowly trailed his lips up my neck, slipped his arms around me and pulled us closer. For a moment I forgot how to move… and that was all it took for that same tremendous passion to start bubbling up in the pit of my stomach.

I knew where he was taking this, and it really had to stop NOW. But it felt… Argh! This is crazy! Come on, Naomi, don't let him take advantage of you like this! Do something! DO SOMETHING!

So I did… out of pure panic and reflex, I raised my hand and…_SMACK!!!_

It hit a lot harder than I expected… hard enough to send the Prince reeling to the side, clutching the side of his face in pain. He was off of me now, thankfully, but I saw the hurt on his face and I immediately felt horrible. The second I realized what I'd done, I jumped forward and started apologizing up and down until he steadied himself and raised his hand to silence me. I bit my lip and inhaled sharply as I watched him lower his hand revealing a huge red mark on his cheek where I'd hit him. My heart almost stopped when I saw the damage I'd done… but it wasn't just the mark that made me regret my actions. It was also the expression on his face.

"Prince, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to… it wasn't… I just…" I stopped.

"No…" he said at last, his voice quiet, "I'm the one who should apologize." Was he fighting back tears? I couldn't tell. "I know you're already promised to another. You can't love me, no matter what I do or how hard I try…" He shook his head and turned away from me. "I'm sorry, Naomi. From now on, I promise I won't bring it up any more." He sullenly began walking towards the balcony to his own room.

"Prince, I'm sorry!" I tried again, but I got no reply. He just left the room, closing the door behind him. Distraught and a little upset, I took a seat at the edge of my bed and sighed shakily. What was I going to do now?

Because of the, ah, 'incident', dinner, which was supposed to be a wonderful, joyous celebration of my recovery, was tense, uncomfortable and not very joyful at all. I, of course, hand a place of honor next to the King and the Prince was just on the other side of him. The whole meal, he did make an effort to be cheerful, but he hardly ate a single bite and did more rearranging of his food that eating. I just ate what little I could and tried to make the best of the situation. The king was doing all this special for me; I should at least try to enjoy it, even if my guilty conscious was sitting on my shoulders like a ton of bricks. It didn't take me long to resolve to try and talk to him again after dinner.

It really didn't help matter, either, when I kept hearing mine and Jericho's names being spoken. A lot of people kept leaning over or turning around to stare at me, and then would turn back and whisper amongst themselves. I especially didn't like the things I was hearing about Jericho's so-called crimes against me and Dalila. Speaking of Dalila, I kept my eye on her as best I could during dinner. She was keeping up the innocent facade quite well, and every time someone would come and offer their condolences to her, she would smile sadly and thank them for their concern.

As for me, all of the sympathetic smiles and knowing looks that people kept giving me were starting to get on my nerves. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, had they known the truth, but that wasn't the case. They all thought that Jericho was the culprit and would soon be brought to justice, meanwhile the real criminal was sitting at the dinner table, playing Miss Innocent. It made me so mad... but I just swallowed my tongue and tried to keep my mouth shut, all the while wishing that Jericho were right here with me.

When dinner ended and everyone at the table began leaving to fill the rest of the room and talk and do whatever rich snobs like them do, I quickly left the room to try and tail the Prince as he headed out of the room and towards the gardens, but the King stopped me before I got very far.

"Leaving so soon, Miss Fox?" he inquired, just before I got to the door. I had to stop.

"N-no, I was just going out for air," I stammered quickly, hoping to get him off my back quickly. I had to talk to the Prince!

"There wouldn't be anything wrong, would there? At dinner, I couldn't help but notice both you and my son acting so… melancholy." Busted. I dropped my gaze as he approached me.

"Uh…" was all I could muster in reply. I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"Anything you wish to discuss, dear?" I looked up and pursed my lips, unsure if I wanted to bring him into this. It was his son that I'd hurt, after all… The King, as if he'd read my mind, ushered me down the hall in the opposite direction of the dinning room, encouraging me to tell him what had happened. So I did.

Before I knew it, I was spilling everything to him. I told him all that was worth telling, about the prince's feelings for me, about when he'd first fallen for me, about how he kept trying to win me over but I wasn't going for it, and about our falling out earlier. I remembered what the Prince had said about his father in the third game back home. He was right. He was a great man. Endlessly understanding, incredibly generous and willing to listen, always eager to help. I wish I had a father like him…

"…and that's about it. I was just about to chase him down and try to apologize again when you came and here we are," I finished. He seemed to mull it over for a moment.

"Hmm… well, I won't give my opinion on the matter, but I will say this: wait until he's finished sulking and then try and talk more with him. Maybe then he'll be more willing to listen to you and see things from your own standing." We stopped walking and he faced me. "I understand you must feel guilty, Naomi. But give yourself a little time to think tings over more clearly." Not knowing what to say, I just nodded and sighed. He put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm probably needed in the dining room by now, so I must be going." He smiled. I cracked a small one in return. "Good evening, Miss Fox." With that, the King left me alone with my thoughts.

Well, I guess he was right. If I jumped on the situation now and tried to smooth things over it would just make things worse. It would be wise to just wait until the Prince was feeling better to talk with him again. But even so, I was worried. I mean, what if he turned around and did the 'Romeo' thing and killed himself over me? I really doubt that he would do something that drastic, but still… well… I guess it wouldn't hurt to just check up on him…

Taking a deep breath, I made my way back to the garden entrance, which wasn't too far, since the King and I had almost gone full circle. I quietly slipped out and shuddered as the cool night air hit me. The gardens were quiet and from the looks of it, empty. But the Prince had to be here somewhere… I walked around for a little while, the only sounds being my footsteps on the carpet-like grass. It didn't take me long before I discovered signs of life. The Prince was seated on one of the stone benches that were placed all over the gardens in various places. He looked just as depressed as ever, but that wasn't what made my eyes widen and duck behind a tree. Dalila was sitting right there next to him, a look of compassion in her unearthly green eyes. She was talking to him, too quiet for me to hear from my position, but I could tell that whatever she was telling him had him interested.

I wasn't sure what to do at first. I could just walk over there and push her out of the conversation… or I could just leave. The latter would probably be the smarter and less painful option, so that's eventually what I decided to do. But before I could even turn around, I saw the Prince look up at her… and smile. My gut bubbled. He used to smile at me like that… Why was he smiling at her? What did she do to deserve it? I don't see her jumping around doing silly stunts…

Then, to making things worse, Dalila lightly placed her hand on his cheek and pulled him into an embrace, which he welcomed, seemingly whole-heartedly. That was it for me. That was all I could take. I turned on my heel and quickly stormed back out of the gardens and back up to my room, practically slamming the door and I sulked the rest of the evening.

* * *

Kiri: Well, since chapters have been pretty short lately, I figured I'd kinda make up for it and give you guys an extra long chapter this time! Woo! But anyways... ooh, is that jealously Naomi is feeling? teehee... all these questions and more shall be answered next chapter, where I will hopefully be able to do another FAQ finally! w00t! It's bedtime right now, and I've got school tomorrow, so I can't do it now, but either way, you guys make sure to leave a nice review or three! So until next chappy, ciao!


	11. Jealousy and Hatered

Chapter 11

Everything went wrong after that night. The Prince and I hardly made eye contact, let alone spoke to each other. I guess you could say we kinda avoided each other, since whenever we were left in the same room together, it would become so awkward and uncomfortable that one of us would finally leave. Every time I thought I had at last gotten up the courage to try apologizing to him again, I would either chicken out at the last minute and he was with Dalila.

I had come to despise Dalila with every cell, molecule and atom in my body just over the past couple days since the incident. Whenever I saw the Prince and her together, she was either flirting and pretending to be oh-so-concerned about him, and probably putting me down while she was at it. And all the while, the Prince was smiling. At her. Not just any smile, either. No, he was smiling a drunken, stupidly infatuated smile that made me want to set fire to random objects.

I dealt with it for a while. I just grinned and put up with it while at the same time my blood was boiling. But I tell you, it was very hard to keep up and grew increasingly difficult to maintain.

One night, the one thing I had dreaded the absolute most finally happened. I had resolved for the millionth time to apologize to the Prince and found him in one of the common rooms. The door was slightly ajar, just enough for me to cautiously glimpse in to see him seated in an armchair with a book in his lap. At first I was relieved that he was alone so I could finally speak with him in private, heart-to-heart. But that resolve was quickly shattered when Dalila walked over to him from wherever she'd just been, knelt by his side and carefully brushed his hair behind his ear. He took his eyes off of his book and looked at her and smiled. She whispered something to him and in response, he closed the book and set it aside so he could turn and stroke her cheek. Then, to my utter horror, he slowly leaned forward… and kissed her.

That was all I could stand to watch. The second their lips touched my heart twisted itself into knots and I could feel that familiar hatred for Dalila flare up once again. All I could think about was the nerve she had to just walk in and seduce my Prince—I mean _THE _Prince! —and steal his friendship from me! What right did she have to take him away from me after all that he and I had gone through together?! I'll tell you what. A big fat ZERO!

I stormed back to my bedroom, fighting back angry tears the whole way, slammed the door, sat on my bed and fumed. It wasn't fair. This was stupid. Beyond stupid. This was injustice at its peak. Not only had that bitch in red taken my health, but also she's stolen my friends from me! She framed poor Jericho, made everyone believe that he was a cold blooded murdering rapist and she managed to turn the Prince against me as well! And what could I say or do against any of it? Nothing I did would be able to free Jericho; most of the palace guards believed her. And after I had torn the Prince's heart into little sticky pieces, like hell he would take my side over his new woman. I doubted that even the King would take my word for it.

The thought of what she was doing and that I was completely helpless to make a dent in it just infuriated me all the more. For about five minutes, I sat there, just thinking of ways I could murder her. It would be so easy… maybe… As I thought of all this, I absentmindedly fiddled with the necklace the Prince had given me the night I'd broken his heart. It was so odd, whenever I looked in the mirror and saw it, I couldn't help but feel guilty. I'd tried to take it off several times already, but whenever I tried, it just… didn't seem right. Like I was taking off the last piece of the Prince I still had left. So I just left it there.

A long time went by until I finally decided to take my mind off of it all. Sighing in frustration, I stood and walked to the vanity across for the foot of my bed and sat there. For a while, I just stared at my reflection. What did Dalila have that I didn't, anyway? Creepy green eyes? Big boobs? Demon blood? GIMMIE A FREAKIN' HINT HERE!

A slight glint of gold suddenly caught my eyes. When I looked, I found that it was an envelope with a little golden seal. It was broken, though. I don't remember this… I picked it up and examined the seal. Wait, is this…? Oh, I remember now! This is that letter that I got on the Island way back when! The one I never got around to reading! Well… I guess now is as good a time as any. Glad to finally have something to distract me from Dalila, I took the letter out and unfolded it.

_**To Miss Naomi Fox,**_

_**We, the members of the Council of Angels, take great pride in informing you that you have been selected—**_

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

…

Why does that always happen?

I tried to read it again, hoping that if I didn't answer, the knocker might get the hint and go away. But they persisted and I finally just folded it up and put it aside.

"The door is open!" I shouted sounding none too cheery at all. I sat back at my vanity as the door opened and in walked, to my incredible surprise, Princy! Oh, did he ever pick a BAD time to try and talk. Ok, Naomi… just make an effort to be nice…

"Naomi…?" he spoke up, somewhat timidly, as though he wasn't any keener and speaking to me that I was to him.

"Princy. Isn't this a surprise. To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure?" Ok, that was NOT making an effort. Whether he was so immersed in his own feelings and so busy trying to get his words right that he didn't notice my crappy attitude or he did notice and chose to simply ignore it is unknown to me, but I could see anxiety in his eyes, nonetheless.

"Um…" he dropped his gaze and rubbed the back of his neck. "Listen… Naomi… I…" I rolled my eyes.

"Yes?"

"Naomi… I know we haven't spoken since… you know…" he stammered. I just turned back to the mirror. Maybe if I wasn't looking at him, he would calm down a little so he could say what he had to say and leave. Luckily, it seemed to work. He cautiously approached me. "…It hasn't been easy on me," he said at last. "I've thought about this whole thing a lot. I don't want our friendship destroyed because of a silly infatuation. I understand if you're still upset with me, but I'm sorry for my actions that night. It was... childish." I let out a long breath of air as my anger slowly melted away only to quickly become replaced with impatience.

"…I'm not mad at you…" I replied softly.

"I'm really sorry, Naomi," he said again, lowering his head. "It's just that… I really had strong feelings for you. I really wanted you. When you smacked me, I was completely stunned."

"Because you've never had a woman reject you before," I finished. He shifted uncomfortably.

"…Yes." We were both quiet for a moment before he spoke again. "I've found someone else."

"You mean Dalila?"

"…Yes! How did you—"

"You two are always together anymore, and with the way you both act around each other, all I had to do was apply a little common sense." And I saw you KISSING her!!

"Oh… Well… You won't have to worry about me any more, then."

"Yeah. I guess." Once again, I lightly fingered the necklace as he walked over to stand behind me. "You'll be wanting this back, then?" He paused to consider this, but put his hand over mine to stop me from taking it off.

"No. You keep it. It looks much better on you that it would on her, anyway."

"Ok, then." He was quiet again.

"Naomi… is there… something bothering you?"

"No, not really."

"Are... you sure?"

"Yeah. I guess."

"You seem… aggravated somehow…" he cleared his throat. "You… forgive me… right?"

"Prince, these past couple days have been really aggravating, so I'm sorry if I seem short." I glanced down at my nails, "But I agree that this shouldn't be the end of our friendship." I caught a glimpse of him in the mirror, smiling. Any other time, I would've relished in that smile and just been happy that he was happy. But right now, I just wanted him to leave already. I didn't want to encourage him into a big long report of how wonderful Dalila was and how she helped him through depression after what I'd done and blah blah blah. I just wanted to be alone.

"Well, I'm glad that's not between us anymore," he answered me. More silence. "Naomi, are you…"

"Prince, I'm fine. Everything is fine. I'm not mad at you, I'm glad that you found someone else to replace me as a love interest, and all that, but I really just want to be alone right now to think, so can we please just do this some other time?" I finally explained, a little more firmly that I'd intended, but it got the message across that I didn't want to deal with him. He seemed taken aback for a moment as if worried that he'd done or said something that had offended me. But after a moment, he nodded.

"Alright. I'll just… leave you alone then," without another word, he walked to the door. "Goodnight, Naomi."

"Goodnight, Prince," I responded, trying to end our conversation on a good note at the very least.

* * *

Kiri: I intended this one to be up much sooner, but hey... times of hard. But here it is, in all it's badly written glory. lol. this one isn't really all that great, but the next one will start picking up. I hope. anyways... It's late and I'm really tired, so I'll postpone the promised FAQ until tomorrow. And I'll make you guys a deal. if I get at least three reviews, I'll update again tomorrow. okies? until then, ciao!


	12. Pain and Refuge

Chapter 12

So what did I mean by 'everything went wrong after that'? Well, when morning rolled around again, the Prince cautiously came in and woke me for breakfast. I awoke in a bad enough mood as it was, so I just knew that something was going to happen. But deciding to be a defiant bitch, I went down anyway, almost daring fate to do something. Rule number one, kids: never EVER dare fate ruin the day. Not only will it ruin the day as intended, it will do it three times worse.

I just sat there and grumbled as the Prince stood up with Dalila, gave her a hug and announced that they were a couple. Oh, someone gag me. There was a big long applause and a round of congratulations. I couldn't stand it. I finally just got up and left the table, disgusted. That was my mistake.

The prince caught up to me in the hallway and asked why I had left so abruptly. Why was I so grumpy? Wasn't I glad that he and the bitch in red were together? Wasn't I glad that he was out of my hair? Wasn't I happy for him? Wasn't I going to acknowledge it at all, for Heaven's sake?

Finally, I lost my patience, which was the worst possible thing I could've done.

"Fine! Since you insist on dragging the truth out of me, I left because I was absolutely disgusted!" I exclaimed, "No, Prince, I don't like Dalila. In fact, I despise her with every inch of my being! I hate the fact that you just had to go for HER of all the other girls you could've picked!" He stepped back, as if shocked by my outburst.

"But… but why?" he asked, unable to believe my reaction. Then, all of the animosity and rage I'd been holding in came pouring out.

"Why? WHY? I'll tell you why! She tried to _poison_ me, Sora! She nearly _killed_ me! Poor Jericho was only trying to figure out who was doing it so he could _protect_ me and she_ framed_ him! The only reason I'm healthy again was because I stopped eating that tainted food she was sending to me!"

"N-no… Jericho was caught right in the act!" he protested, "She saw him about to-"

"She saw him do what, try to help me?"

"She saw him add poison to your medicine!"

"How in the world would she have seen that when she only ever came in my room once? I highly doubt she can see through walls!" I rolled my eyes, "You must be so blind to not be able to see what's going on here! Dalila is a freaking demon, Prince! She's a demon! Her blood is deadly poison to me! Didn't you notice the cut on her wrist like the rest of us? She was bleeding herself over the food that I was eating!"

"A simple cut doesn't make her guilty, nor does it make her a demon," he replied, lowering his voice to a dangerous tone.

"Why do you think Jericho's locked up now? He saw her for what she really was and called her on it! He never tried to rape her, he was trying to reveal what she was to everyone! And on top of all that, she's coming between us!" All hail my stupidity. That was the wrong thing to say, Naomi. The Prince folded his arms.

"So that's it, then. Now I see why you're acting this way. You're jealous," he stated, narrowing his eyes.

"Jealous?" I shrieked, "Why the hell would I be JEALOUS?"

"You're jealous because I love another now and I'm no longer lavishing you with attention. That's childish, Naomi. You had your chance, and you rejected me."

"What are you _talking_ about?" I yelled.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about!" he snapped back, "You are so envious of Dalila that you're accusing her of conspiracy! You're making up stories about her so you can justify to yourself why I shouldn't be with her. And it's all because she and I are together now!"

"That is not true!" I all but screamed. "Look what she's already done! All these years of friendship, and you're taking the side of that bitch who's trying to tear us apart!" He lost his temper. He grabbed me by the arm so tightly it was definitely going to bruise, and then… he smacked me so hard I lost my balance. Pain seared my cheek and the sound of the impact echoed in the hall. I was shocked at first. So shocked that I didn't even noticed the tears already streaming from my eyes as I fell on the ground. He'd hit me. He'd actually hit me!

"Perhaps it isn't Dalila who's trying to tear us apart," he told me coldly.

I couldn't stop myself from doing what I did next. My hand clutched to my cheek, I curled up on my side, heaved several ragged, uneven breaths and completely lost it. I screamed, I cried, I sobbed and practically threw a tantrum. I knew it was stupid and immature and that I was only embarrassing myself and proving the Prince's suspicions true, but I couldn't stop myself. What a way to end a friendship…

I didn't notice the Prince leaving, but I knew he was gone when a couple of maids whom had the misfortune of watching the whole thing unfold came over to me and helped me to my room and tried to calm me down. But I couldn't. Never, during the whole time I'd been in this world had I thought the Prince would so much as flick me. He'd never raised a hand to me with the intent of doing harm. He'd yelled at me and hurt my feeling with insults, but he'd never hit me.

As soon as the maids left, I heard a familiar tapping sound on the doors of the balcony. Rubbing my eyes, I looked over, seeing a certain shadow cast over the balcony floor. My heart leapt and I hurriedly unlocked the doors, feeling more than relieved to find the other Prince of Persia standing there. He didn't hesitate to hug me, and I didn't either.

"I got this feeling that you were in trouble and I came to check on you," he quickly explained. "Did something happen?" I buried my face in his chest and drew in a very shaky breath, which gave him his answer. He pushed me away so he could look at my face, and I wordlessly complied, thought I kept my gaze downcast in shame. I didn't want him to see me this way, swollen and tear stained, but it looked like I had no choice. He said nothing as he examined my still-red cheek.

"Who hit you?" he finally asked, gently, but firm. It took me a moment to find my voice and get it working again.

"...Sora," I answered in a whisper. Jericho inhaled sharply upon hearing his brother's name and pulled me back against his chest.

"He knows better than to attack women..."

"It's Dalila," I said, my voice now a little stronger. "They're a couple now."

"WHAT?"

"She's been working on him for the past few days. He's wrapped around her finger."

"So he hit you because she told him to?" he surmised.

"Well, no..." I answered, suddenly realizing exactly what I had done to make him angry. Oh, Jericho wasn't going to like this. "I kinda... lost my temper this morning... and I said some things..."

"You told him?" he exclaimed, a hint of anger in his expression. "Naomi, that's exactly what I told you NOT to do!" He let me go and turned around, taking a few steps away and grabbing a handful of his hair. "Now he'll tell her whatever it was you said, she'll know that you know about her, which means she'll know you spoke to me and..." he let out a frustrated sigh. "Now our lives just got harder. She's isolated us both."

"...I'm sorry..." I mumbled pitifully, hugging myself. He turned back around , and I prepared for another ass-chewing, but instead, he heaved a heavy sigh and his aggravated expression softened.

"I can't stay mad at you," he said exasperatedly. He came back over and embraced me again. "I didn't mean to snap. Whatever happens, we'll work with it. But from here on, it looks like it's just you and me."

It was about this time that I heard more tapping. Both Jericho and I turned our attention to the balcony and found a large spotted falcon perched on the railing, pecking his beak at the metal to get our attention. And of course, there was an official looking envelope tied to his leg. I bit my lip, wondering what it was, though I already had a pretty good idea. after all, there was only one letter from the Heaven's that I was waiting for.

Jericho let go of me and we both walked out to the balcony to the falcon. He stood on the railing, staring at us with his large eyes while Jericho untied the message, and then, seemingly satisfied, he started preening his wings. Jericho looked the envelope over and from what I could see, it was definitely from the Council. I swallowed. This had to be it. This had to be about my engagement.

"...It's for you," Jericho told me as he handed it over. He seemed strangely relieved as he did so. I took it from him as though it were a piece of hot coal and just stood there a moment, staring at it. This was either about my employment or my engagement. "Well, aren't you going to open it?" Jericho interrupted, giving me an anxious look.

"Sorry... I'm just nervous, I guess." Careful not to tear the envelope, I broke the Council's seal on the back and pulled out the thick, folded parchment inside. Taking a deep breath, I unfolded it. Inside, I found a small stack of paper-clipped forms, as well as an official looking letter.

_**To Miss Angelina Samira,**_

_**The time has come to further your duty to the Heavens like all young angels must. After careful examination of your compatibility questionnaire, you have been successfully matched to the most complimentary partner available. We understand any feelings of disdain, or dissatisfaction you might feel towards this process, but you must understand that it is for the good of the Angelic race. Enclosed is the information for your soon-to-be spouse, and we strongly suggest that you return to the Heaven's immediately after receiving this to maximize the time you have for getting to know one another before the bonding date. **_

_**Best regards to you,**_

_**Council of Angels**_

My breath caught in my throat as I finished reading, and then came out in a painful rush. Jericho noticed this.

"What is it?"

"...My... marriage arrangement." I watched as any small semblance of a smile that was there faded into a frown.

"...Oh." Is it just me or does he seem... disappointed?

"I'll have to leave soon... I'm sorry, Jericho."

"Don't apologize. It's... something you have to do." I swear I heard pain in his voice. I didn't blame him. I didn't want to leave. Even with Dalila running about, my only friends were here, in Babylon. "But you don't have to leave right away, do you?" The elder Prince asked me suddenly.

"No, I don't think so. But they said to return to the city as soon as possible so it won't feel like such a shotgun wedding," I explained. He nodded, his face becoming emotionless.

"Well then, we better hurry and figure out what to do about this mess Dalila has us in," he told me firmly. "Go get your wings. We'll go back to my room, where we can speak more openly." I looked at him oddly for a moment, wondering why who's room we were in was at all important. I did what he said, and we flew off together towards his room.

The minute I stepped inside, I realized why he'd said is was a safer place to talk. It was HUGE. No, huge wasn't the word for it. It was like a house in itself! I thought my guest room was too big for just one person, but this...

"Jericho, why do you need so much space?" I asked, still gaping in awe at the sheer size of the room.

"I don't, actually. It's just the privilege of being the heir to the King and Queen of Babylon." He leaned against his balcony door frame. "As the heir apparent, I was treated special." He made a circular motion with my hand when he said 'special.' That said, he walked further inside. "Why, don't you approve?"

"Um... that's hard to say." He walked around his ridiculously over sized bed to the bedside table, where he retrieved something long and thin from the top drawer.

"Chocolate?" he offered, holding the large bar up so I could see. "I'll split it with you. I know you girls have a thing for it." I couldn't help but laugh at this.

"Sure," I replied, going over to join him. I was feeling a lot better now, and I was actually starting to forget about my fight with the Prince earlier. I seated myself on his bed, which I found to be very comfortable, while he broke the bar of chocolate in half.

"I've always kept a private stash," he told me, giving me one of the halves. "It's a guilty pleasure I like to indulge every so often." He sat next to me.

"I'll keep that in mind the next time I have a craving," I joked, flashing him a mock knowing grin.

"And if I come in and find them all gone, I'll know where to look," he returned, mirroring my expression. I broke off one of the square and popped it in my mouth. Now, there was chocolate, and then there was _chocolate, _and holy freaking crap, this was freaking _chocolate._ I nearly melted with pleasure. "Like it?"

"Where the hell did you get this? This isn't chocolate. This is a god incarnate." Jericho chuckled.

"It really helps when you've got extra money to throw around," he replied. "But enough about that." He turned a little more serious. "What exactly has been happening out there?" I thought back on the last few days, trying to recall as much detail as I could.

"Dalila is practically running the place. All the gossip I hear is about how you tried to kill me, how you tried to rape her in the middle of the night..." I sighed, and started to tell him everything I knew about the whole problem. I started from when I'd had to slap the Prince to get him off of me, I told him about how he and Dalila started seeing each other and when I saw them kiss, and I finished with what had happened this morning. I told him as much as I could remember about the argument, in terms of exactly what I'd told the Prince in my fit of anger. While I talked, Jericho stayed silent, and even when I finished, he didn't say anything.

"Well," he said with a long sigh, "there's still one thing working in our favor."

"What's that?"

"If push comes to shove, I can easily take out the palace guards, and my brother has never once been able to best me in a fight." My heart sank. This was not what I'd wanted to hear.

"Y-you mean we have to fight?" I stuttered nervously.

"Maybe."

"B-but I can't...! I don't know...!"

"If I do have to fight someone, you run away and hide."

"Jericho, you can't possibly expect to stand up against everyone in the palace!" He was silent again, and looked up at me comfortingly.

"Don't worry, I'm much stronger than you think. And considering that I only have to kick their asses, rather than kill them, it should be a much easier fight. But, that's only worst case scenario. For now, let's just keep gathering information so we know exactly what the hell we're up against." I swallowed and nodded, still not liking how it things were sounding so far. I did not want him to have to fight all those guards at once. I mean, sure he was big and muscular, and he claims that the Prince has never been a match for him, but that didn't mean that he was invincible. He could get hurt...

Well, I guess I would have to try and make myself useful again, like back in Azad when it was just me, the Prince and Farah. My fighting abilities were total crap now, just like they were back then, despite what little physical activity I had done while attending the Academy. Jericho was my only real line of defense, and the only friend I had at this point. What would I do if he got hurt? I may as well just go dig my own grave.

"What should I look for?" If he was stuck in here, I would have to go out and act as the spy.

"Well, first of all, you keep a very low profile. Now that she knows what we know, you're walking on eggshells out there. Just keep your mouth shut and be as respectful as you can. Don't fight with anyone, don't make any sort of gesture that would induce suspicion, in fact, don't say anything at all, if you can help it."

"I'll try."

"Also, keep your ears open for any rumors or gossip. It's obvious that she's been using these channels to work against us." I nodded solemnly.

"So, in other words, sit down, shut up and listen?" Jericho nodded.

"Exactly. And be very, very careful." I looked down at the last square of chocolate in my hands and quietly put it in my mouth, enjoying the last little piece of Heaven I was going to get for a while. But while I did this, I couldn't help but notice a photograph sitting on the bedside table. A photo? Cameras haven't been invented yet, though... Curious, I leaned into Jericho's side, trying to get a better look at it, which didn't work. A little disappointed, I reached over and picked it up.

It was of a woman, or rather, an Angel woman, laying in bed, light blonde, luscious hair that fell to her hips, crystal blue eyes, and a pretty, young, porcelain face. In her arms was a baby, and off to the side was a familiar looking, bearded man, also holding a baby.

"Who's this?" I inquired curiously. Jericho sighed.

"My parents. This was taken by one of my mothers friends the day my sister and I were born."

"She's very pretty. Your mother, I mean." He slipped his arms around my waist.

"She was a beautiful woman, even when she had us kids to put up with. My brother Malik was the first born. My sister and I were twins, and we both turned out to be Angels. Sora was born four years after we were, and good lord was he _spoiled_." I had to laugh at this. So the Prince had been the spoiled brat of the family? Now there's a juicy bit of info. Jericho continued, "Because of the age difference, he was usually left out when Butterfly and I would play. But of course, all he had to do was go crying to our mother and we'd end up in trouble. I used to... get so mad." I giggled.

"So which one are you?"

"Oh, hell, you expect me to know that?" he replied, giving me a look. I returned it with a puppy dog face, he was no match for! Woo, score one for Naomi! "I think that's me," he said, pointing to the infant in the young King Sharaman's arms. "I can't be sure it is, but from what I heard, my father was overjoyed to have a son." I couldn't help myself after that.

"Aw, Jericho, look how cute you were back then!" I teased, snuggling against him a little more. "You were so cute... so tiny and cute..." He started inching away.

"Cut that out."

"But you were _sooooo_ cute!" I looked up, seeing that his cheeks were turning red. "Just look! You were so _precious!_"

"Naomi!" He pushed me off and turned away slightly so I couldn't see his face.

"You were adorable back then... What happened?" He turned back around, looking like I'd insulted his goldfish.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he demanded. I kept giggling. He took the photo from me, and gave it one more look before setting it back in it's place.

I plopped backwards into his bed and sighed happily. So I finally had a few answers to the mystery of the Sharaman family. He and his sister had been twins and the Prince was the baby of the family, who was always left out. Well, I guess that explains his incredible stubbornness... and why he had a tendency to pout sometimes. But there was still some unanswered questions to the puzzle.

"So, what happened to them? Your mother and sister?" I asked, more seriously this time. Silence was my answer. For a moment, I thought he hadn't heard me, and I was about to repeat the question when he spoke up.

"I don't know." I blinked and sat up again, ready to push more more information. But then I saw his expression, stone-faced and sad, and decided not to. But while I wasn't going to get any direct answers, I knew now that something had happened a long time ago. Whatever it was, it wasn't my business, but that didn't stop my curiosity.

Deciding not to say anything, I leaned into him again and smiled when he wrapped his arm around me. We both laid down after a while. I stayed there for a long time, and with each passing minute, I felt more and more content. There was something about him... something that made me feel safe and comfortable around him. There was something that made me feel as thought I belonged with him. Whatever these feelings were, I wasn't going to fight them.

It was hours of friendly conversation, teasing and incredibly romantic silences before we both decided I had to get back to my room before someone realized I was missing and went looking. We both put our wings on and flew back around the palace to where my room was. Upon inspection, nothing was out of place and everything was just as I'd left it. Jericho gave me a quick hug and made ready to leave, when he stopped, his bright eyes fixed on something.

"What's that?" he inquired, walking further into the room. I followed him, and reached his position just in time for him to turn around with the letter I'd gotten seemingly forever ago.

"Oh, this?" I too it and held it up, "Nothing, just a letter from the council I have yet to read."

"From the council?" he lifted an eyebrow and I showed him the seal. "You better read it, then."

"Well, I've been _trying_ to, but every time I do, I get distracted! It's becoming quite irritating." He looked around.

"There's no one around now but me," he pointed out, "so read it now." I bit my bottom lip and looked at the letter in silent agreement.

"I guess now is as good a time as ever…" I slowly unfolded it.

_**To Miss Naomi Fox,**_

_**We, the members of the Council of Angels, take great pleasure in informing you that you have been selected as a candidate for a special and very top secret occupation set directly under the Council. The training required will be vigorous, but you have proven to us thus far that you have the right qualities for the task. Please report to us immediately when you have read this letter.**_

_**Congratulations and good luck to you, **_

_**The Council of Angels**_

My jaw dropped. I nearly fell over dead. This was it! This was undeniable proof that the council members were all out of their trees! Me a direct employee of the Council? Are they absolutely insane?

"I can't believe this… No, no, I _won't_ believe this! This is impossible! I'm not worthy of something like this!" I exclaimed. Jericho stayed strangely silent, and he suddenly seemed really stiff as though someone had shoved a board up his ass.

"Well, you must've done something to impress them," he said, his voice sounding forced.

"It's a mistake! It has to be! Jericho… I can't… I…"

"...I should go before someone realizes I'm here," he said quickly. A little too quickly for my liking. But by the way he was acting, I decided not to push the issue.

"Will you be alright?" I asked softly. He smiled at me.

"Don't worry. Just stick with the plan and come see me tomorrow night. I'll leave the balcony door open." He held my hand reassuringly. He probably didn't want to go anymore than I did.

"I'll see you later," I said.

"…Yeah. See you soon." He lingered a moment before turning to leave. He walked slowly towards to balcony, and suddenly, a huge wave of regret exploded in side of me, and I felt intensely unfulfilled. He couldn't go... not yet.

"Jericho!" I called. He turned back to me.

"What is it?"

"I... I don't know." He half smiled and shook his head.

"You don't want me to go, do you?" I blinked, slightly surprised, but shook my head. "I don't want to leave either." I started to walk to him, and he met me halfway and engulfed me in his embrace.

"Naomi, I..." He bit something back before it could leave his mouth.

"What?"

"...I have to go. The guards will be in to check on me soon."

"...Oh." Disappointment laced my words more that I'd intended. "Ok. I'll see you tomorrow, then." He gripped my hands firmly and stared directly into my eyes.

"I will be looking forward to it."

* * *

Kiri: And the plot thickens! W00t! Well, here it is, guys. The latest and longest installment yet! Seven pages of chaptery goodness!

Naomi: About time, lazy authoress!

Kiri: Hey, I've been working all day on this, thank you very much!

Naomi: No you haven't.

Kiri: HAVE TO!

Jericho: ok, break it up...

Prince: Why am I such a jerk in this chapter?

Kiri: Because.

Prince: (annoyed) Because why?

Kiri: Because you get to do the FAQ today, that's why!

Q: Holy crap, first the Prince, now Jericho? What's with all this romance madness?

A: erm...

Naomi: You have to remember, Kiri is a hopeless romantic, and she loves to screw around with things and twist them so horribly that it confused the crap out of everyone and no one knows where she's going with it!

A: Yes... what she said.

Kiri: Tee hee.

Q: So who's she going to end up with?

Kiri: Maybe you should read on and find out that way.

A: Uh, yeah.

Q: Why is Dalila so mean? What did Naomi ever do to her? ;.;

Naomi: She's a bitch!

A: uh...

Q: Why is the Prince being so mean? He had no right to slap Naomi like that!

A: ...

Naomi: Because that bitch in red had his mind all twisted up. Since I refused him, he was all hurt and Dalila came along and picked up the pieces. now that she's returning his affections, he can't help but think he's in love with her.

A: WHO IS DOING THE FAQ HERE, ME OR YOU?

Naomi: ...sheesh, sorry...(rolls eyes)

Q: So Naomi gets to do something special for her job ;)

A: Yes, she does.

Q: WHERE'S MY DARK PRINCE AT!

A: (prolonged groan)

Kiri: (sly grin) tee hee. well, that's about all i have time for, folks. It's dinner and I've got some things to finish up. Get me three more reviews and I'll see what I can do with the next chapter, okies? So until then, ciao!


	13. A Heaven for Angels

Chapter 14

It felt odd to have to wake up on my own, since the Prince wasn't coming in to wake me anymore.

Since I'd slept through breakfast, one of the servants brought me my food while I was getting dressed. It wouldn't have been such a big deal, except she kept staring at me...

The minute I stepped out into the hallway, my sixth sense instantly began warning me that exploring the palace was not a good idea. Even though there were only a few people in the hall, the air was thick and intense, and I didn't like it. But I'd told Jericho that I'd gather some information, so that was what I was going to do. Unfortunately, however, every room, hall way and corridor I went in to, anyone who was inside who drop their voices to whispers as soon as I walked in and kept turning to stare. I wouldn't have minded so much if they'd been staring for the same reasons they'd stared at me the day that the Prince, Jericho and I had gone shopping. But this wasn't the case. At the time, they'd seen me as a beautiful, exotic woman, the likes of which they'd never seen before. Now... well, this was all Dalila's handiwork.

I spent about an hour wandering the palace before deciding to give up, go back to my room and curl up with a book until the servants called me for dinner. I tried for awhile, but I quickly found that my mind was far too wired to focus on the adventures and ingenious findings of Sherlock Holmes. My thoughts wandered back and forth over everything that was going on, and what exactly I could do at this point. Dalila was a demon, and I was just me. I was no match for her by myself, so I was relying entirely on Jericho to defend me and help relinquish her iron grip over the palace.

And then there was Jericho. Thinking about what he'd said to me yesterday made me giddy. Did he really love me? And if I was completely honest with myself, did I love him? Yes, I think I did, but which way I didn't know. Not that it would matter. I couldn't date him, even if I wanted to. After all this was sorted out (hopefully), I would have to return to the Heavens to meet the angel I was supposed to marry. After this, it would be goodbye and the end of everything that couldn't be a simple friendship. I didn't even know if I would even see him, or the Prince again.

I had a pre-set life waiting for me in the Heavens, with a husband, kids and a good job. A life that I had to take, or face some nasty consequences.

And if that wasn't enough, I kept wondering about the Prince. Dalila was a demon. That much we all know for certain, but what did she plan on doing with him, or with the entire palace for that matter? What if he really was in terrible danger?! I couldn't just leave him to the harpy. Not after all these years of friendship. I had to get rid of her.

I went down to dinner feeling more than uneasy that evening. I decided to wear my gown, since there was no back to it, and my angel charm that held my wings, in case I had to make a quick getaway. My heart hammered as I entered the dinning room, and even moreso when I slid into my usual seat. I was met with a very cold reception. The same people who were once so friendly and kind to me now sat there, staring at me like I was unworthy garbage that didn't belong. The King eyed me as I sat down, and the Prince just turned away completely. I just stared down at my empty plate and did my best to remind myself that Jericho was waiting for me in his room and I would be able to see him after all of this.

What followed was the most uncomfortable and scary events of my life. I was the recipient for filthy looks, harsh comments and hostile responses every time I moved. Even the King, who had easily become the closest thing I had to a father figure was either giving me disapproving stares, or ignoring me completely. The Prince ignored me, though he seemed to make a point to be loud enough for me to hear when he was talking about his relationship with Dalila, and every so often he would accidentally elbow me and then roll his eyes as my reaction.

Despite the treatment, I ate what little food I could choke down and listened for any new information that might be useful. And I heard plenty of it.

"Look at that little tramp, sitting there next to the Prince like nothing is wrong. Who does she think she is?"

"I heard she is having some kind of love affair with Prince Jericho. It figures, really. Traitors stick together."

"Well, I heard that she's been sleeping with all those trouble making renegades just out of the city."

"Dalila is truly the greatest blessing we could've received. With all she's done for us, it will only be a matter of time before she finds enough evidence to allow the King to throw that little blue haired wench in prison."

"To think I actually pitied the girl. Oh, had I known then that she was such a traitorous whore..."

Finally, I'd had my fill. I quietly mumbled an "excuse me," got out of my chair and hurried out my the dinning room. I kept it together as I made my way to the gardens, trying hard to ignore the stares from the servants and guards. I had to find some place, some refuge where I could be alone. Everything I'd heard and all the abuse I'd taken replayed over and over in my head, and my control was quickly diminishing. A hurricane of emotions was building up inside and were threatening to explode at any moment. Luckily, I made it to a far side of the hanging gardens where no one was around just in time.

I threw myself down on a close by stone bench and cried.

It was bad enough having the Prince hate me, and probably spreading some of that animosity among the top rung of society, but this was just unbearable. I'd hated it when people were believing that I was Jericho's would-be victim and having to deal with the misplaced sympathies and misdirected hateful comments about the older Prince, but now, because I'd opened my mouth, I was in the same shoes as he was in now.

Dalila's grip on the palace was too tight now. Every single individual within the palace, except Jericho, believed what she had told them about me. I was now being called a traitor, for lord knows what reason... and if what I heard was right, the King had bought into Dalila's lies and was ready to throw the book at me.

I stood back up after the worst had passed and dried my eyes, and then walked over to the edge, where the gardens overlooked the city. How far had these rumors spread, I wonder? Did the entire city know about what was happening? Was Dalila's influence slowly expanding to the minds of the lower class citizens? Did they all think that I was some kind of undercover whore for whatever opposition there was to the Crown?

Now I know why people commit suicide, because I think I'm going to.

"Oh, you poor darling, what ever is the matter?" I didn't have to turn around to know who was there. The sorrow and helplessness I felt melted into a boiling rage, and I whipped around with a nasty sneer to match what I was feeling.

"What now, you hateful bitch?!" I demanded. "Haven't you done enough already?" Her expression of false sympathy changed into a smug grin.

"Now, now," she tsked, waving her finger at me, "is that any way to speak to the future Queen of Babylon?" My heart nearly stopped.

"Future... queen? No. He didn't..."

"Oh yes. He most certainly did. Just this morning, in fact. But you wouldn't know. You've been far too busy with your own romantic escapades with that traitor Jericho."

"He's not a traitor!" I cried, outraged.

"Oh yes he is," she answered in a song-song voice. "He is whatever I make him out to be, just as you are, darling."

"You're despicable." She responded with a hearty laugh.

"It's simply amazing, the difference between us and these humans," she said in an amused tone, leaning against the bench I'd previously been crying on. "Their minds are so weakly linked to the spiritual world. It makes them so easy to lead around, poor gullible fools. Not at all like you and I." She smiled at me, and I returned it with a scowl. "We are so much alike, you and I."

"I am not like you."

"Oh, but you are, my dear. We share a special connection with the cosmos. A connection that allows our very existence to be the balance of the universe. It's a shame, though, what's been happening to the Angels these past years. The interconnections of their society are fading. If something isn't done about this, then I fear the light they represent will be snuffed out."

"What are you talking about? Or do you even know?" I snapped. What did she know about my people? Nothing, that's what. She laughed again, as though she knew something that I didn't.

"You really _don't _know, do you? Your society is dying, little Angel. The light that connects you is growing dim, and in turn, my people are flourishing. Haven't you ever wondered why the infertility rate among you all is skyrocketing?" I have to admit, what she said caught me off guard. She knew something about it. Either that, or she was bluffing. To be honest, I wasn't sure what to think.

"If your trying to play mind games with me..." I warned.

"Oh, heavens no. My abilities wouldn't have an effect on you. If they did, you would be just like the others, worshiping the ground I walk on."

"You..." I couldn't think of a name vile enough, "What are you doing to these people?"

"I'm controlling them, of course. Like little puppets, all on my string. Here, allow me to give an example. Guard! Grab her!" Before I could react, a palace guard leaped out of the bushes closest to me. I gasped and raised my arms in defense, waiting for the sword he was holding to come slicing down on my head. That didn't happen, and instead of killing me right there, he snatched my arm, pulled one tightly behind my back and put the sharp edge of his blade to my neck. It took me a minute to realize I was still alive and recover from my near heart attack, and it was then I realized that Dalila was laughing. I would've snarled, had I not been in a clear life or death situation.

"Why are you doing this?" I cried pitifully, not sure what to make of my new dilemma. "What did I do to you?!"

"Oh nothing. But I figure that since you're the last of your family line, finishing you off will make my name legendary. Of course, becoming the Queen of the Persian army is a nice added bonus I picked up along the way."

"What family line?! I'm just a commoner!" I cried, trying to loosen the soldier's grip on me. "I'm nothing special! Now let these people go!" She let out an amused, but exasperated sigh.

"You really are clueless, aren't you? What a pity. Well, now I suppose all that's left to do is figure out how to kill you. It would be better to do it quickly and get it over with... But then again, what fun would that be?"

Now I was scared. Holy crap, this lady was as crazy as a latrine rat. She was going to kill me because she believed that I was from some kind of special family line, then she was going to do lord knows what to Jericho, then marry the Prince and take over as Queen of the most powerful empire in the world. Oh... this was not good. I had to do something. But what the hell could I do when I was being held at sword point with no real way of defending myself? Hell, I couldn't even get my wings on so I could run!

Dalila looked me over a few times with a thoughtful expression, occasionally making sounds of approval. Then she smiled, as though coming to a decision.A moment later, the situation went from bad to worse when the Prince came out looking for his bride-to-be. I wasn't just in hot water. I was in hot water, the frying pan and the inferno all at once.

"Ah, you're just in time, darling," she told him in a sickeningly sweet voice, "I have a present for you." She gestured towards me. The Prince gave me an emotionless look before turning to Dalila in confusion.

"I'm afraid I don't understand." She slid her arms around his neck.

"After she left he dinning hall, I followed her out here and caught her right in the act of signaling to someone on the lower levels. Just in time, too, it seems."

"What?! I never-" I exclaimed in shock. The guard yanked me back before I could finish.

"Now we have the necessary proof to show to your father, my love. I'm sure with enough... persuasion, she'll confess to it." My heart began pounding when the Prince turned his gaze back to me, looking all but extremely mad. Oh, someone help me... He began approaching me.

"So, this is the thanks I get for all I've done for you?" he asked coldly.

"No! She's lying!" I cried, hoping to somehow get through to him. He shook his head.

"All these years of friendship meant nothing to you, didn't they? To think, I actually trusted you, when all along you were going to betray me!"

"No! Prince, you _know_ me! For Heaven's sake, Sora, _snap out of it!_" His fist suddenly collided with my eye. The guard dropped me, probably out of surprise, and I hit the ground seeing stars.

"I should have known! I should have know you were conspiring with my traitorous brother to get the throne!" I groaned as I tried to hoist myself onto my elbows. What was it about men where they could hit you once and it feels like your eye is going to explode?

"You keep telling yourself that, Prince. And I'll keep praying for you," I replied, decided that if I was going to die, I may as well go out in style. That didn't help his anger. I was sure he was going to hit me a lot more after that, but Dalila stopped him.

"Prince, darling, don't hurt the poor girl," she said smoothly, although she obviously didn't mean a word of it. She came over and put her hand on his shoulder. "She may be a traitor, but she should at least have a fair trial. Her, and your brother." He looked uncertain at first, but then looked at her understandingly.

"Your compassion simply astounds me," he told her quietly, placing his hand beneath her chin.

"I only want what is best for us all," she replied sweetly. Then they kissed. I looked away, but I could still hear the disgusting sucking noises they were making. Oh, someone gag me, please. But then my fingers brushed against something solid and smooth. I looked down at whatever the object was, finding it to be a stick. I almost disregarded it as unimportant, when a thought came to me...

If there was one thing I'd learned from my adventures with the Prince, it was that every second counted in a battle. The stick I'd found looked sturdy enough, and the tip was nice and pointy. If I made a clean move, then it might serve as a good distraction and I would have just enough to time get up and run. I bit my lip, carefully gripping the stick in my hand. Come on, Naomi... hurry, while they're still smooching!

Shoving my fears into the back of my mind, I lurched forward and brought my pitiful weapon down at hard as I could in a stabbing motion right into Dalila's foot. I knew I'd successfully hit my target when she suddenly broke the kiss and screamed bloody murder. I didn't waste time, even though I would've loved to see reactions. I rolled away from the guard and got to me feet, which wasn't easy, since I was wearing high heels. Then I ran, just as the cursing began. I mumbled silent thanks to whatever deities were watching me and kept running. When I thought I was a safe enough distance, I grabbed onto my charm and brought out my wings, thankful to feel their familiar weight on my shoulder blades. I jumped into the air and opened my wings, ready to fly away to whatever refuge I could find, when something snatched my ankle.

My face drained as I looked down, finding the Prince there, holding on to me, keeping me from freedom. Worse yet, he had a sword. Oh crap. Using my moment of shock to his advantage, he pulled hard on my ankle, yanking me out of the air and back down on the ground. Just when I started to right myself, though, he used one of his ever-famous sword maneuvers... I wasn't sure what happened at first, until my dress suddenly felt wet. Horrified, I looked down and clamped my hands over the gaping slash in the stomach, and dropped to my knees in shock.

I could already feel hot tears building in my eyes as my breath accelerated as I watched my silver blood leak through my hands and begin to pool on the grass. A terrible icy fear slowly took hold of me when I realized that I had no chance of making it out of this one. There were no water sources nearby, and if I tried to run, I wouldn't make it far before being caught. I was going to die, right here by my best friends sword. All those years of friendship, all that we'd been through together, everything we'd ever said to each other and done… none of it mattered now. All because of one stupid woman, whom wasn't even a woman, my best friend had turned on me and was now going to punch my ticket.

Say, I wonder if there's a Heaven for Angels? Well, if there is… I'll be there real soon.

* * *

Kiri: Ugh... you guys are lucky to even get a chapter this time around... I've been sick for the past couple days... I feel like total crap... so yeah. sorry if this chapter is kinda crappy. but it does kinds thicken the plot... yknow, with Jericho and the Prince trying to kill Naomi... yeah. I'm going to bed now. Ciao.


	14. Just a Demon in Disguise

Chapter 15

"Naomi…" a low voice hissed in my ear. Was I dreaming? "Naomi, wake up."

I groggily opened my eyes. Everything was double for a moment, but my vision quickly corrected itself and I found myself looking up into a pair of blue eyes. Not just any blue eyes, though.

A wave of panic shot through me and my self-preservation instinct took over momentarily. I yelled and scrambled backwards in attempt to put as much distance between he and I as possible. It didn't work very well.

"Naomi, it's me! It's me!" Jericho exclaimed, trying to calm me down. Once I recognized his voice, I blinked and looked around the area, confused. The Prince was on the ground several yards away, looking dazed and Dalila and frantically trying to get him back on his feet. The guard was gone, too. Wonder where he went?

"Jericho? What... happened?" It was only after I asked the question that it all came rushing back to me. My little stick attack on Dalila's foot, the Prince intercepting my escape attempt and nearly killing me... My hands went to my belly, where the wound had been. My dress had a large slash mark in it and was stained with my blood, but there was no sign that an injury had ever been there.

"Looks like I got here just in time," Jericho told me. "A wound like that would've killed you."

"So... did you...?" He held up an empty vial, which gave me an answer to my question. "Oh... thanks. I thought I was a goner." He smiled at me, then turned his gaze to his brother, who was quickly recuperating from Jericho's attack.

"Thank me later. We've got bigger problems." He got to his feet and pulled me up after, then pushed me behind him protectively as the Prince began to pull himself to his feet and picked up the sword he'd dropped.

"Oh, put that away, Sora," Jericho finally said in a scolding type of voice. "You and I both know who would win in a fight." The Prince narrowed his eyes threateningly. "Look at you, taking the word of this... _harlot_ over that of your own flesh and blood."

"You are no brother to me!" The Prince snapped. "You are traitor!" Jericho raised his eyebrow.

"Wow, it's worse than I thought," he said to me, tilting his head in my direction. I kept my gaze on the Prince, until I noticed something a little perculiar about him... More precisely, his eyes.

"Jericho... there's something wrong with his eyes," he said, trying to keep my voice quiet.

"I know," he answered. "Dalila's doing. She's probably done the same to everyone else."

Maybe it was the distance between us, but I couldn't place it. There was definitely something very different in his eyes. Those same eyes that had once looked at me as a friend and colleague, and had once fallen in love with me, now held none of the warmth I'd come to recognize in him. There was no sympathy in them for me, nor was there much else except... hate. He hated me. My heart clenched at the realization. What sort of monster could take such enormous love and friendship and twist them so horribly into cold hatred?

Unfortunately for us, it was at this time that our stand off was interrupted when the King and about two dozen soldiers came bursting into the scene and completely surrounded us. Jericho quickly grabbed my arm protectively in order to keep me close, and I didn't protest. I clung to him like a frightened child and watched nervously as every possible route of escape we had was closed off by menacing looking soldiers with big, shiny swords that all had our names carved in them.

"Oh, your Majesty, thank the Gods you're here!" Dalila cried, putting up her innocent facade again. I felt like gagging. "Those two horrible, _horrible_, traitorous _monsters_ made an attempt at my life! If your son hadn't arrived when he did..." Someone kill me now. The King offered her a sympathetic nod before stepping up along side the Prince.

"She speaks the truth, Father," the Prince said, "It appears that Jericho was working through Naomi, as she suspected." The King only nodded, keeping his cold stare on Jericho and I. Seeing him look so emotionless sent shivers down my back. His face didn't change as he approached the two of us, and something told me that impending doom was staring us in the face. We couldn't run anywhere: we were surrounded. We couldn't fly either, since the archers here would shoot us out of the sky. We were trapped.

Then he stood in front of us, his tall form seeming to tower above us like a judge. He looked us both over, and to my surprise, his face softened when he looked into the eyes of his son.

"...Jericho, my son," he said, almost sadly. "I never would have imagined, in all my years, that you would turn your back to me in this manner." I heard Jericho's breath catch in his throat.

"Believe what you will, Father. It won't make it true," he replied emotionlessly. The King shook his head, a melancholy expression on his face. Then he turned to me and his face hardened. Gulp.

"And you. I welcomed you into my city, and this is how you repay my hospitality?" he demanded angrily. I shrank back, trying as hard as I could to become one with the grass. Jericho squeezed my hand reassuringly, but that didn't help. Somehow, the way the King was scolding me made me feel ashamed of myself. "You deserve no mercy!" I bit my lip, trying to keep myself from sobbing. Thankfully, he returned his attention to Jericho, his face softening just a tinsy bit. I had to hand it to Jericho... I never would've been able to stare into my mom's eyes for this long if she were scolding me. He was definitely brave.

"What would your mother think if she knew?" the King said to his son, voice soft, yet dripping with disappointment. That seemed to strike a nerve with the elder Prince. A very sensitive nerve.

"Don't you bring Mother into this!" Jericho snapped nastily.

"She would be ashamed if she knew about this," the King continued sadly. Jericho inhaled shakily and I could feel him start to tremble.

"Jericho, don't listen," I tried to tell him softly. He squeezed my hand even tighter, and I swear I could see him fighting back tears. He probably already knew that King Sharaman wasn't himself, since his eyes were just as different as the Prince's, but hearing mention of his mother must've hit home... but good. What had happened between them, I wonder?

It was around this time that Dalila, with the help of the Prince, hobbled up to the King's side and, with a sickeningly sweet smile, asked if he was ready to pass his judgment on us for our crimes against the crown. I almost lost my dinner at how easily she could manipulate him. This was not going to end well. Bad Juju vibes...

He motioned to one of the soldiers, who came running up and snatched me away from Jericho and held me back from him at knife point. Jericho just stood there, his expression hard and unfeeling. I can't imagine how he must've felt, being condemned by his own father all because of one power hungry demon hussy.

"Your Majesty, with permission, I don't believe presenting evidence will be necessary. He looks to me like he's ready to confess his crimes," Dalila said smoothly. The King considered this for a moment, all the while never once taking his eyes off of his eldest son. He said nothing, but nodded solemnly and stepped back. She grinned from ear to ear as she let go of he Prince and walked, without any trouble, to stand in front of Jericho. No one said anything about it, either.

"Well then," she said cheerfully, "you've been found guilty of high treason and conspiracy. What do you have to say for yourself?"

"Go to Hell," he told her bluntly. Suddenly, there was a bright red flash and Jericho let out a scream of pain and fell to his knees, holding the sides of his head.

"Now, now," Dalila scolded him, wagging her finger, "just be a good boy and confess to your crimes." Jericho ground his teeth together in pain. Somehow, I just knew that she was doing something to try and manipulate him like she had everyone else. I wanted to run to him badly, but the soldier holding me would not relent. But if I didn't do something...

"Nu... No..." Jericho strained. He was fighting her! My heart leaped with hope. Maybe his mind was too strong for her after all! Maybe she couldn't get to him like everyone else. they were all just standing there, watching all this play out like nothing was wrong. Unfortunately, Dalila's cocky smile ruined whatever hopes I'd just had.

"Well, now, you certainly are a fighter, aren't you? But I'm afraid that no one withstands my hypnosis. Not even Angels," she said smugly. Whatever she was doing, I had to stop it!

"Leave him alone!" I shouted desperately. She flicked her wrist at me dismissively.

"Yes, yes, you'll have your turn soon enough." She knelt down in front of him and smiled tauntingly at his writhing form. "Now, I will ask once more, Prince Jericho of Persia. Do you confess to your crimes against the throne?" There was another bright red flash and Jericho let out a louder scream. He twisted and squirmed on the ground, trying with every bit of will power he had in him to fight her. I bit my lip as I watched in horror, fearing that he might not have the strength...

At last, he stopped thrashing and slumped down in surrender.

"I... d-do..." he mumbled pitifully, but still strained.

"No! Jericho!" I screamed, not wanting to believe what I'd heard. She'd beat him. She'd invaded his mind and...

"There you have it, my King," Dalila said in triumph. "A confession."

"You evil bitch! I'll kill you for hurting him!" My threats were ignored, but that didn't stop me from making them. "You horrible cheating woman!" I was ignored again... at least until I elbowed the soldier in the stomach with a strength I didn't know I had and ran toward her with every intention of ending this mess right here. I guess everyone else was too shocked that I'd even managed to break loose to do anything... except for the Prince. He intercepted and grabbed me just before I could reach the bitch in red.

"No! Let go! Let go!" I shrieked, tears now streaming down my cheeks. He held onto me tightly, but I kept fighting. She was only a few meters away... If I could just get there, I could finish this before Jericho really gets hurt!

"So I don't believe there's any need for a trial now... you should just execute him now and save time," Dalila continued, ignoring me. When I saw the King actually start to consider it, I completely lost myself. My face now scarlet with rage, I started screaming as loud as my lungs could stand it. I screamed and screamed and couldn't stop screaming. Everyone in the gardens doubled back and many plugged their ears. Even the Prince was taken aback by this. I kept screaming, not stopping for breath, or anything.

"Someone shut her up!" I barely heard the King give the order. The Prince tried to grab me back even tighter, but before he could get a grip on me, the garden was suddenly flooded by an explosion of white light. I kept screaming, not paying attention to anything around me. Not the guards, not the shouting going on beneath my own high pitched wail, not even the pain that was beginning to sear into various places in my body.

My lungs began burning and my head felt like it was swelling, but I still couldn't stop screaming. Even when my vision went foggy and eventually blacked I couldn't stop. A whirlwind of emotions ricocheted through me like a hurricane, and showed no signs of letting up. The pain I was feeling also continued to get worse and worse, and the more I screamed, the more intense it became. But I still didn't stop. The world around me was becoming fuzzy to my perception and soon all I could sense was what was going on inside of me. I lost track of everything. Everything except the burning fire that was consuming me and at the same time fueling my emotions and not allowing me to stop. Within minutes, I didn't even know why I was screaming, only that I had to keep going. My rage and passion and sorrow refused to let up and as long as they swirled around, slicing into me like those spiked poles the Prince and I had constantly had to avoid in Azad, I wouldn't stop. I couldn't.

And then, with no warning at all, everything stilled. The tornado inside of me stopped as though it had been frozen in time. I stopped screaming.

* * *

Kiri: Hmmm, what could've happened?

Naomi: What the crap...

Kiri: :)

Naomi: ...

Kiri: Maybe I'll let Dalila live a bit longer...

Naomi: DON'T YOU DARE!

Kiri: I'm the authoress here! I'll do what I want!

Naomi: HEY!

Kiri: OK, well, I'm cutting it short here. As a final note, Christmas vacation is just around the corner, and lucky me, i get to go up north and see my brother. (gag). But don't worry, I won't be gone for long, and I'l lbe sure to have the next chapter out before the end of the week to tide you guys over. Ok? Ok. So until then, Ciao!


	15. Jericho's 'Little' Problem

Chapter 16

The incident in the gardens came to a quick and rather awkward close. The King apologized on behalf of himself and everyone in the palace who had fallen to Dalila's influence. He offered to make it up by giving me a treasure of my choice, or whatever my little heart could've asked for. I polity declined his offer, though. I mean, there wasn't really much he had that I wanted, except maybe one of his sons... But I couldn't have that, since I was getting married very soon. I didn't have much need for money, either. After the King had Dalila's corpse dealt with and shooed his men away, a few of which stopping to apologize to me for their harsh treatment, the Prince and I hauled Jericho onto our shoulders (lord he was HEAVY!) and we all decided to just call it a night and pick up the pieces in the morning.

Of course, the Prince just couldn't hold back the burning question any longer and asked why Jericho had wings. Realizing that his cover had been blown, Jericho told him he was an Angel, but both he and the King promised an explanation when he had his strength back. Completely befuddled, the Prince just nodded like he couldn't quite get his head around what he was seeing and hearing from his own brother.

The Prince and I slept together that night in my room after getting Jericho to his own bed. Jericho was asleep only seconds after his head hit the pillow, so it didn't take long for us to get him settled. And after we retired to our own rooms, for the first time in what seemed like forever, I fell asleep in the warmth of my best friend's familiar embrace. I think he was just as glad to have me back as I was having him back. Although it was obvious he felt guilty about what had happened while he was under Dalila's spell and kept telling me over and over that he would make it up to me if it killed him. I tried to tell him it wasn't necessary, but like hell he'd listen.

I found my bed empty when I woke up the next morning. For a moment, I forgot about last nights events and huddled under the covers, thinking about how the hell I was going to survive the day with everyone hating me. That lasted until the Prince came in to wake me up.

"Alright, Naomi, I've been nice and let you sleep in this long," he told me sitting on the edge of my bed, "now it's time to get up." I groaned and pulled the covers over my head. He let out an exasperated sigh. "Come now, I can't keep the cooks waiting on you all day." Cooks? Since when did I wake up in time for breakfast? ...What time was it, anyway? Curious, I cracked an eye open, finding my room brightly lit and a fully dressed Prince sitting on my bed.

"Prince?" I said groggily, "What cooks..." I yawned before I could ask the whole question.

"Well, get dressed and I'll show you."

"Do I have to..."

"Yes, you have to." I groaned in protest. "Come on, Naomi, I said I was going to make things up to you, and I meant it. Now get up. I'll be waiting for you in the hall." Before I could say anything, he got up and left. Great, now that means I have to get up! Oh, sometimes he gets on my nerves...

After rolling out of bed and picking myself up off the floor, I haphazardly got dressed in my normal clothes and met the Prince in the hall. When I informed him that he better appreciate the struggle I just went through, he laughed and offered me his arm like a gentleman. I was almost tempted to tell him to stick it for forcing me to get up again, but I decided not too. After all, he seemed pretty excited about whatever it was he wanted me for.

He led me down stairs and into what looked to be a much smaller, more private dinning room. There were several servants inside putting the finishing touches on the table settings, except... there were only two.

"Are we the only ones eating?" I questioned.

"Yes."

"... Did everyone lose their appetites, or what?"

"No, no. You slept through that breakfast. Well, both of us did, actually. So I ordered us a meal in the private dinning room." I looked at him in surprise, then gazed around the room at the luxurious setting. It was very cozy, almost romantic. The silverware and dishes looked more expensive than the ones I was used to in the big dinning room, and the fruit and bread baskets that were already set out looked more like sculpture than food.

"Prince, you didn't have to..." I began, feeling unworthy.

"Of course I did. It is... the least I could do after... last night." He and I walked over to the table. He pulled my chair our for me, which I blushed at, and then he sat down adjacent from me. Me made our usual type of conversation while we snacked on the bread and fruit that was there until the real meal arrived. I noticed that some of the girls were a little extra nice to me, and some wouldn't look me in the eye. Not that it really mattered... You would think that I'd be used to special treatment by now... I guess not. Once a commoner, always a commoner.

It was nice to finally be able to relax. No rumors to worry about, no one chastising me behind my back, no evil demon women trying to take over the world... Our conversation progressed, even after we'd both eaten our fill and the servants had cleared the table. We talked about almost everything there was to talk about, some things serious, others playful. It felt... good, being able to just kick back with him and just... talk. Before I knew it, several hours had passed.

"...This is fun," I said randomly when there was a short interval in the conversation.

"It is," the Prince agreed, smiling, and then added as a joke, "Are you sure you can't marry me?"

"Yes, Prince, I'm pretty sure-" I stopped. My smile faded. "Oh... crap..." The Prince's smile also faded when he saw my face.

"What is it?" In all the excitement with Dalila and all the drama I'd been facing, I had completely forgotten about the two letters I'd received from the Heavens... my job... my marriage... they were all up there waiting for me now. I felt the Prince's hand over mine. "Naomi! What's wrong?"

"Uh..." I bit my lip. I had to tell him... the sooner, the better. If I told him now, I might be able to make it tomorrow... I would need as much time as possible with my... fiance. "Prince... I need to tell you something..." He kept his eyes on me, his expression less worried now, but still serious. "It's about... my 'arrangement.'" With these words, he sat back in his chair, like he already knew what I was going to say.

"...You have to leave, don't you?" he asked, sounding hurt. I nodded.

"I got the letter a couple days ago. I have to get back as soon as I can so I can meet him and get to know him a little." He said nothing. "Look, I don't like this any more than you do. If it were up to me, I would stay here for the rest of my life! You know I would. After all we've been through..."

"I know. I just hate the thought of another man... _touching_ you, or even _looking_ at you for that matter."

"I don't like it either. You were my first kiss, you know." He seemed taken aback by this.

"No, that can't be right," he said reminiscently.

"Yeah. Back in India, remember?"

"I remember. But was I really...? You mean you were never with anyone before that?" I shook my head.

"Nope." He grabbed my wrist tightly and leaned over the table.

"Now I really can't let you go, knowing you're so innocent." I laughed.

"I wish I could stay..."

"Well," he said, his expression growing a little more serious, "Whoever this stranger is, I... hope he's worthy of you. And... I hope your marriage is a happy one." I could tell he was having a hard time saying it, but he meant what he was saying.

"Thank you... I hope it is, too."

I went to see Jericho after the Prince and I parted ways. His door was unlocked, and I didn't hear anything, so I decided to let myself in, figuring he was still knocked out. Well, he wasn't. He was seated on the side of his bed, drinking from a glass of water. It wouldn't have been so strange... if I hadn't seen a very incriminating-looking orange bottle in his other hand.

"Uh... Jericho?" He nearly choked on the water when he heard me, and quickly set it down, stood up and hid the bottle from my sight.

"Gods, Naomi, haven't you ever heard of knocking?" he snapped, his voice hard enough to make me shrink back a little.

"Um... sorry... I just... thought you were still asleep."

"Well, I'm not."

"I, erm, just came to check on you," I told him, now uncomfortable.

"I'm fine," he answered in an obvious 'go away' tone. ...Was he hiding something? Like that little bottle? Somehow, I felt obligated to find out.

"So... um... what was that orange thing I saw?" I asked. Oh, what are you doing, Naomi? Do you want him to kill you?

"Nothing," he replied shortly. "Vitamins."

"Vitamins? I didn't know you took vitamins." He looked off to the side, obviously becoming annoyed with my questions. Yes, I was pretty certain that he was hiding something about these 'vitamins.' It was all over his face, and his voice was saturated with 'I'm a big fat liar and you need to go away now or face my wrath.' You'd think I would do what any smart, sane person would do and just leave it alone...

"In case you didn't notice last night, I work for the military. I have to keep my strength up," he explained, sounding a little calmer now, but still a little hurried. He sat back down, dropping his gaze.

"But aren't you a little young for that kind of thing?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I'm twenty-nine and pushing thirty. For military grunt work, that's old enough to need a little help. Provided they aren't poisoned."

"...Poisoned?"I raised an eyebrow

"You never know when someone might sneak in and slip something in your drink."

"I see..." I answered, trying not to sound too bewildered. "So... how are you feeling?"

"Better than I was. My head is still foggy, though." He sighed, dropping his face in his hands. "Damn hypnosis wielding concubine... If Sora hadn't... I wish I..." he lowered his voice to a mumble so I couldn't make out what he was saying. I came inside and closed the door behind me.

"Jericho?" He tensed suddenly. "You ok?"

"I'm not thinking straight. Don't listen to me."

He sat there for a moment, just staring off blankly, as though contemplating something, then broke out in laughter. Confused, I looked myself over, making sure it wasn't me he was laughing at, but everything was in place. "...What's so funny?" His laughter faded, but he didn't offer an answer.

"I think you should go," he told me, suddenly very solemn. "Just go..." I don't know what was going on in his mind, but he was really starting to weird me out.

"Uh... ok... I'll come back a little later." When he didn't answer, I awkwardly slipped out of the room and breathed deep. Jericho may have some social problems, but I don't think I've ever seen him act _that_ weird. Well, it was probably just a side effect of Dalila messing with his head... I hope.

That evening, I had dinner with the King, the Prince and some royal suck-ups in His Majesty's private dining room. I was welcomed back to the dinner table with a very warm reception. Thankfully, not much was said about the recent events, which I was thankful for. I needed some normal for a change.

I picked at some of the appetizers while conversation went on around me until the King stood up with his wine glass and everyone got quiet, "A toast, to the end of that woman's mind control, and to my son and the lovely lady who saved us all from it!" I blushed furiously as everyone yelled an enthusiastic 'Hurah!" and drank.

"I didn't really do anything," I said when manners permitted, "It was the Prince who killed her."

"Perhaps," the Prince agreed, "but if you hadn't freed me, it wouldn't have happened."

"But that was an accident! I don't even know how I did that!"

"Accident or not, it happened."

"But I-"

"No buts." Realizing That he was dead set of making me into some kind of hero, I gave in and continued on with my meal.

"I saw Jericho earlier," I said a while later, without thinking. at this, the King looked up at me from his plate.

"Ah, yes, how is my son?" he asked with a smile.

"He's getting better. He said his head still felt foggy, and he was... acting kinda funny."

"Funny? Explain, please."

"Well... I don't know, he just wasn't himself. I guess it's just the aftermath of what Dalila did to him. I don't know, he just seemed really scattered and a bit paranoid. Hopefully he'll be over it soon... he freaked me out earlier."

The conversation went on without me for a while, giving me a chance to catch up on some eating. If there was one thing that I was going to miss when I left, it was the food. The food back in the Heavens couldn't hope to hold a candle to this place!

"I'm gonna miss these cooks when I leave..." I sighed, not realizing I'd said it out loud until I noticed the King staring.

"You're planning on leaving the city, Miss Fox?" he asked curiously. Well, guess the secrets out now...

"Very soon. I have... obligations."

"Oh? What sort of obligations, my dear?"I shifted uncomfortably, unsure if I should tell the truth or make up something.

"She's getting married, Father" the Prince answered for me. The King's eyes lit up in interest.

"Really? Well, my dear, do tell. Who is the young man?" I shifted again.

"Well, I don't know yet. That's why I have to leave soon, so I can meet him." The King looked at me thoughtfully.

"An arranged married, I see. Well, when must you leave?"

"I'm not sure. Soon... a couple of days, maybe." I had to stifle a laugh when the Prince nearly choked on his food and glared at me.

"Must you really leave to suddenly?" the King asked, interrupting the Prince's stare down at me. "It seems only yesterday you arrived here."

"Sorry... It's just something I have to do. I wish I could stay here, really. I've never been treated so well in my life, and all my best friends are here." The Prince smiled slightly. "And I've known your son for so long, he's like family. Like I said, I don't want to leave... but it's either that, or get in big mondo trouble with the government." The King's eyes filled with understanding and he nodded, offering me a comforting smile.

"We are all sorry to see you go, my dear. But know that you will always be welcome here." I think I'm gonna cry.

Dinner ended, and it was time to check on Jericho again. I made my way to his room, hoping that he was over whatever weirdness had taken over his mind earlier. This time, I knocked, remembering his pissed off reaction to my barging in on him earlier. But there was no answer. Well, maybe he really is asleep this time... I quietly opened the door and let myself in.

The room was dark, since the heavy drapes over the glass balcony doors were drawn shut, but there was enough light from the sunset to fill the room with a dim orange glow. Jericho, as I suspected, was in bed, dead to the world. Relieved that I wasn't going to get yelled at again, I slipped in, closing the door behind me, and went to sit on his bed. He was on his back, one arm folded over his chest, the other up by his face. His hair fell loosely over his face, giving him an almost boyish appearance, which I couldn't help but smile at. He just looked so at peace when he was asleep...

Then I turned and faced the door again, and I spotted it. The little orange bottle that he'd acted so touchy over earlier was sitting right there on the bed side table. Just like I'd thought, it was a prescription bottle. He'd told me they were simple vitamins to help him stay strong, but those didn't look like any vitamins I'd ever seen. They definitely weren't Flintstones tablets. Curiosity bubbled inside of me. It really wasn't any of my business, what sort of vitamins he was taking. I had no right to go sticking my nose into his personal life, especially after the way he's reacted this morning...

But I just couldn't help myself. I took the bottle from it's resting place, being careful not to disturb the elder Prince, and I scanned the label, which, in retrospect, I wish I hadn't. His name was on it, along with the doctor who'd given him the pills, and the instructions: 'Take two a day, orally, one in the morning and one at night.' The name of the drug was a fancy medical term I couldn't pronounce, but what was written under it I definitely understood. These were not vitamins. At all. Written underneath the name, in bold letters in parenthesis was the word 'antipsychotic.'

My breath caught in my throat. Why would Jericho be taking something like this? Unless there was something wrong...

Jericho stirred behind me, making me jump in surprise. I got to my feet, intending to put the bottle back, but my body completely froze in the 'deer caught in the headlights' position when he turned over and opened his eyes.

"...Naomi?" My heart hammered. I was in trouble. I was in SO much trouble... He was going to kill me and then dance on my grave... He sat up when he saw his medicine clutched in my hands. His initial expression was shock, but that quickly faded into a mixture of anger and anxiety and... fear? "...You know."

"Uh..." I squeaked.

"Damn it, Naomi, can't you just _mind your own business?_" he shouted, jumping up.

"I'm sorry!" I said quickly, trying to make amends. It didn't work. "I was just curious!"

"There's some things that you don't need to know! This was one of them!" he snatched the bottle away from me. "Well, fine! Go on! Tell me what a goddamn freak I am and be done with it!"

"I don't-"

"Don't even_ try_ to say you don't!" he snapped, his expression now enraged. "You're just like the rest of them! Nosy, no respect for privacy...!" My back touched the wall. "You just couldn't leave it alone, could you? Even after I told you to! DAMN YOU!"

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead! Call me whatever you want! Crazy, lunatic, maniac... I'M WAITING!" A loud sob escaped me throat and frightened tears I hadn't even known had built up started to escape. I hunched as close as I could to the wall and tried as hard as I could not to cry. Just be brave, Naomi... He wouldn't hurt me... would he?

We stood like that for a moment, the tension in the air refusing to dispel. I should've known he would get mad. It was obvious he didn't want me knowing from his reaction earlier. Why, oh why didn't I just leave the bottle alone? Why did I have to pick it up and read it? Now he was madder than a nest of hornets!

"...Oh Naomi..." he muttered finally, his voice all of the sudden becoming stunningly gentle for a man who was about to to have a conniption and murder me. "I didn't mean it." He touched my shoulder and gently drew me into his arms, which I was more than willing to accept. "I'm sorry I yelled, I didn't mean to frighten you, really. Please don't cry." I let myself finish sobbing on his shoulder, glad that he was calm again.

"I'm sorry, Jericho," I said when I could speak without my voice trembling, "I shouldn't have touched it. I should've known you-"

"It's alright," he interrupted with a heavy sigh after a little consideration. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before someone found out... I guess I'm kind of relieved."

"But still, it wasn't any of my business..." I'd all but completely invaded his privacy by reading that label. "But I... I just got curious."

"Curiosity isn't a sin. I didn't do a very good job of explaining, nor of getting my point across to you. In a way, I brought this on myself... I suppose I'm just glad you were the one to find out, and not... someone else." He let go of me and went to sit on his bed. Well, he wasn't mad, anymore, at least.

"So I'm the only one who knows?" I inquired, that feeling of curiosity beginning to burn inside again.

"Yes. Anyone else... might not understand." I bit my lip. Now there was one single question hanging in the air in big, bold, neon colors and bright glittery lights. But if I asked, would he get mad again and chastise me for asking too many questions and being nosy? He was scary when he was mad...

"Um, Jericho, do... you mind if I ask...?" He was quiet for a moment, and I almost feared that he was mad again. "I don't want to be a pest..."

"Schizophrenia," he said evenly, raising his gaze to look at me in the eye. "Since I was a kid."

"Schizophrenia?" I repeated, the word ringing bell in my memory, but not enough to tell me what it was exactly. "Isn't that some kind of... mental disease or something?"

"It isn't a _disease,_ it's a disorder," he answered sharply. "It's a chemical imbalance that causes the brain in misinterpret signals, simply put." Now interested, I came over and sat next to him.

"So... what happens with these bad signals? I mean... you seem normal enough to me. I thought people with mental problems acted funny." He shifted uncomfortably.

"I hear voices, and I see things that aren't really there. Not so much now that I'm taking medication, thankfully. Although if I miss a dosage... well, you saw me earlier."

"That kinda creeped me out, this morning, especially the... poison part... and the laughing for no reason..."

"Well, it was funny to me, whatever I was thinking about. I don't really remember now... but I apologize if I made you uneasy. When I'm off the medication, I become paranoid of everything, and it really doesn't help when there's voices in your head telling you that everyone is plotting to kill you."

"Everyone? Even your family?" I asked, intrigued. He nodded. "...Even me?" He gave me a sideways glance.

"They haven't said much about you. One of them thinks your pretty, and another one says your trying to trick me. That's about it. For some reason, they don't say anything when you're nearby."

"Why is that?"

"I don't know." I leaned into his side. Somehow, knowing all this about him made me feel... good. Like I was closer to him now. "But... it's a nice break from all the noise."

We stayed like, soaking up the silence. I tried to imagine what it must've been like, hearing voices that weren't really there, constantly warning you against your own family. It was no wonder Jericho was so anti-social. I'd be paranoid of everyone, too.

"I'm sorry you have to live like that," I told him. "You must be very strong minded to be able to put up with all that." He inhaled deeply.

"It isn't easy. A lot of times, I have to live through it by sheer force of will. The pills help, but it's a mixed blessing, with the damn side-effects. I've been getting over it, slowly, through improved medication and psychotherapy, but have hallucinations."

So I had to ask. "Anything I can do?"

He didn't answer me with words. Instead, he kissed my hairline and held me affectionately before whispering, "Your presence quiets the voices, for whatever reason. That's more than enough."

"What's so special about me?"

"I don't know. But one more thing, Naomi. This stays between us."

"Got it. I won't tell anyone. Promise."

* * *

Kiri: Wow, this one only took forever... Sorry for the long wait, guys. we left a bit earlier than I expected, so I didn't get to finish before leaving for X-mas. And you know what sucks? I caught a damn cold!... yeah. I'll try to get the next chappy up soon, okies? Make sure you reveiw, or else the wrath of my ice cream flavored lip gloss shall descend upon you! Ciao!


	16. Rouge Assassin

Chapter 16

It was taking way too long for the drugs I'd slipped into her drink to take effect. I was starting to wonder if they were going to work at all. She just kept standing there, staring off into Lala Land, unknowing of what godawful fate awaited her. If I somehow manage to pull myself through this, I just may kill myself. She didn't deserve it.

_Get over it. She's too good for you. _

_You worthless scum._

Maybe one day I'll be able to get some psychotherapy that actually works worth a damn. I was loaded up on medication, but I still couldn't push the voices out of my head. And the fact that I kept seeing things jump out at me from the corner of my eye was unnerving me more than I'd admit out loud. Damn it, why won't she go to bed?

_She knows you're here._

_She knows._

Someone please kill me and get it over with... There was a nice sharp pointy edge on that stature just below where I laid in wait, maybe if I just lost my balance a little... Oh, that would go over real well. Special Ops Warrior Angel dies from tripping over his own feet. They'd know I did it on purpose. Then again, I'd be dead, so what the hell would I care? Maybe I could blame it off on seeing things? ...No, that wouldn't work either. They know that I'm aware enough of my own condition to tell real from imaginary... And as soon as they cut me open on the table they'll know how much medication I took. Why do they have to make it so hard to commit suicide these days?

Finally, I saw her yawn and stretch. Finally! I thought I would never get out of this position! It won't be much longer now.

Maybe I could tear up the area and make it look like I'd been ambushed. ...Yeah. Ambushed by what? Birds?

Okay, maybe dropping myself onto a sharp point wasn't the best idea. Maybe it'd be better to wander into the jungle and get mauled by a hungry tiger. ...Except I was expected to be more alert and too quick for any wild animal to catch. Damn it. But if my wings were to somehow get broken or torn off... hmm...

_Leave now while you still can! _

_JERICHO!_

I had to leap away from my position when a cluster of hands reached through the wall beside me.

_NOOONOOOOOOONONOOOOOO!_

I stopped a moment to catch my breath. The hands receded, but hovered just beyond the surface of the stone. I swallowed, breathed deeply and squeezed my eyes shut. It wasn't real. It couldn't have been. Stone is a sold object. Impenetrable. Nothing could bend it that way. Nothing can get through it without crumbling it first. I can't let my mind get the better of me... It wasn't real.

I found watching Naomi undress to be rather enticing, even if it was against whatever semblance of morality I had left from my life as a Persian royal. Women were delicate beings, and their beauty was to be admired with respect. Well, I certainly respected her_, _even if I was about to do the unspeakable to her... Something about that woman stirred up old dead parts of me that had been murdered upon my becoming a soldier. It would be nice to be with her, just for a little while longer, if only to see what would happen between her and I. But since that was impossible, I suppose I was justified in watching her undress from afar like some sort of rapist.

Memories of when I'd kissed her that first time surfaced in my mind, along with the memory of our first meetings. Memories I tried immediately to suppress, but they forced their damn way through. Ugh... well, I guess there was no denying that something had stirred between us. I have no idea what the hell it was, but it couldn't get in my way now. ...I wonder what I could've been... Why did I save her, anyway? I could've just... and then I... Damn it, things would've been so much easier if I had just...!

_You pathetic fool._

"Well let's see you do any better!" I shouted without thinking_. _"...Damn it. Why can't you all just leave me alone for once?"

_We're protecting you!_

_Fool! Where would you be without us?_

"...Probably much better off."

_Idiot. They'll find you._

_They know you._

"Yeah, just like the last time they..." I trailed off when I spotted a dark spot moving along Naomi's balcony. Her room was dark now, and I silently chastised myself for not noticing right away. But still... what was that? When the shadow vaulted onto the balcony and stood upright and folded their wings back, I got my answer. Someone else was here.

Great. Now what? Maybe whoever it was was friendly? Another operative here to look in on things? I should've gone down there and confronted this mystery man, but my uncertainty made me stay there. Like an idiot. Even as he opened the door and slipped inside.

I can't really explain what happened next, because it happened so damn fast I could hardly keep track of it all. A huge wave of fear crashed over me out of no where, but it was... different. Like it wasn't me who was afraid. My heart started pounding, and I could feel myself starting to sweat, but I was calm at the same time. That lasted only a few seconds before there was only one thing going through my mind: Naomi. Get to Naomi. Get to Naomi right now. It could've just been the voices yelling at me, or the part of me that wanted to protect her, but I didn't stop to think about it.

I landed with a soft thud on her balcony and pulled the doors open. Just in time, I suppose. I walked in finding the assassin poised right over her with a dagger at her chest. Because of the drugs I'd slipped her, she was fast asleep, completely oblivious to certain death... Well, looks like I get to be a hero.

"I wouldn't do that," I said out loud. Startled, the assassin jumped and focused his attention on me instead of her. "Kill her, and you'll have to kill me before I kill you."

"...Not a problem!" the rouge angel chuckled in a deep, throaty voice and leaped at me, trying to catch me off guard. I was faster than he could ever hope to be, and I snatched the arm he held his weapon in and twisted it grotesquely behind his back until I heard an audible _crunch_ that told me his arm was broken, and he crumbled to his knees in a whimpering mess on the floor.

"So then... who are you, and who sent you here?" I asked, kicking his weapon away from his reach. I didn't receive an answer. Instead, he jumped up and took another swing at me and I let my reflexes take over again. I grabbed his arm, swung him around and wound my arms around his neck. I gripped his jaw line firmly and gave his head a violent twist... and he fell limp in my arms.

_Now you've done it. _

I just stared at the dark winged assassin now laying motionless on the floor. One part of me kept waiting for him to get back up and keep fighting while another tried to piece together just who the hell he was. His wings were black, but he was no Renegade. Even Renegades had some sense of honor, rather than just sneaking into a helpless girl's room and murdering her in her damn sleep. He must've been a rouge. Another rouge. They've sure been popping up quite often lately. Well, maybe now he'll tell me...

...Oh goddamn it. He's dead.

I guess I twisted too hard... , maybe he'll have something on him that'll explain a few things...

I bent over him and started searching through his pockets, eventually coming across a folded up document that looked like it had seen better days. I opened it, finding exactly what I'd hoped to find. A nice photograph of Naomi, accompanied by what looked like a reward poster, which included information of her, her family, and where she'd last been seen. Strange... why her?

I stared at the body for a bit longer before deciding that scouting the city for any more would-be killers. Maybe sending word to HQ would be a good idea as well... There was definitely some investigating to be done here.

* * *

Kiri: HAPPY NEW YEAR, PEEPS!

Dark Prince: This chapter sucked.

Kiri: ;.;

Jericho: That was unnecessary.

Dark Prince: To you, it was. To me, it was funny!

Naomi: Do we have to have him in here?

Prince: Don't you think I've tried to get rid of him? But Kiri refused to fire him!

Dark Prince: That's because I'm awesome.

Prince: Not as awesome as me!

Dark Prince: Oh? That what's that out there? (points to nearby window with a flock of fan girls outside screaming)

Fan girls: AHHH! WE LOVE YOU DARK PRINCE!

Dark Prince: (smirk) See?

Prince: ...

Kiri: Well, in other news... WHERE'S ALL MY REVIEWERS GO? THEY'RE ALL GONE!

Dark Prince: Because they hate you.

Kiri: (sniffle) WHY MUST YOU BE SO MEAN!

Dark Prince: Because that's just the way I roll. (flashes charming grin to Naomi, who rolls her eyes and turns away)

Kiri: (sniff) I just want my readers to come back! I love them all! Especially the ones that review!

Dark Prince: Then stop writing crap chapters!

Kiri: (cries) MEANIEPANTS!

Naomi: Great... crying again... oh well. Since our authoress is currently.. unavailable, the next chapter will be up soon, hopefully, so until then, happy new year, everyone!


	17. Warrior Angel

Chapter 18

"Naomi! Naomi! Please wake up!"

"Ugh..." I rolled over.

"Naomi, now is not the time for this! Wake up, right now!"

"Ugh, what is it...?" I groggily opened my eyes, finding the Prince hovering over me, with a worried look that was rare for him, and I suddenly felt a little more awake.

"Naomi, what happened here last night? Tell me." I gave him a blank look.

"...Nothing happened. I went to bed and slept... Why?" He looked hesitant, but slowly moved away and I sat up to inspect the room. My heart stopped for a split second and my hand clamped over my mouth in horror. "...What..."

"I should tell my father about this," the Prince said, starting to get up. In a panic, I snatched his arm and pulled him back down. He was NOT leaving me here alone with that... that...

"...I didn't do it," I squeaked. "Honest. I was sleeping."

The Prince got up and stood by the foot of my bed, inspecting the thing from a distance. He shook his head and said, "I don't think you could've done this. You aren't strong enough to overpower a man and break his neck." I felt some semblance of relief when he said that, but it still didn't clear up the mystery. "But then... who else...?

Almost as if on cue, a loud thud on the balcony startled both of us. My heart nearly stopped again, and the Prince instinctively reach over his shoulder for a sword, but when he didn't find one, his curled his fists up instead, ready to defend me if he had to. Both of us were completely focused on the door, almost certain that it was another intruder. So we were rather quite relieved when Jericho nonchalantly walked in. But at the same time, what in the world would his reaction be to this... mess?

"Oh, you're up," he said absently, right before his eyes landed on the... thing. "Oh. Um, yes." His eyes shifted from it, to his brother, to me and back. "I suppose I should've told you about that."

"You?" the Prince exclaimed. "You did that?"

"...I can explain," Jericho said, kinda shifty eyed.

"Please do," I said numbly. "Why the hell is there a... a..."

"Well, he's in here because he snuck in last night and attempted to kill you," he told me, his eyes not moving from it. "He's dead because I got to him first. Although I didn't really mean to kill him. I tried to get information first, but he wouldn't give it up, stubborn idiot." He dug in his pocket and retrieved a slip of paper, which he gave to his brother. "I found this on him." The Prince unfolded it and looked over it before turning back to Jericho with an inquiring look.

"What is this?"

"I think it's some kind of assassination order. I scouted the rest of the city last night for any more threats. I didn't find any, but I'm not convinced that it's safe."

"Assassination?" the Prince exclaimed.

"Who'd want to kill me?" I cried right after, climbing out of bed. "I didn't do anything!" Thinking back, I did do some things that might've pissed off a few people... And judging by my hitman's wings, it was someone on the Renegade's side. Mike, maybe? Or his father? But Aslan had seemed so nice... Then again, everyone lies. Just what the heck was going on around here?

"It could be anyone," Jericho said grimly. "Whoever he was, he wasn't a Renegade." Well, so much for that theory...

"But...his wings are black," I said, confused.

"Yes, but the Renegades don't have an interest in killing you," Jericho replied. "He must've been a rouge. Probably insane." He thought for a moment, then looked at the Prince. "You should get her out of here. It was a lucky thing I was watching last night, but next time might not be the same way." Lucky for me, indeed. How the hell many times over would I be dead by now if it hadn't been for the Prince and his older brother? I really wish there was a way I could stop being so useless... Wait a minute...

"Hold on," I said, walking over to join the two men, "You were watching? when I left you last night, you said you were going to bed because you were 'absolutely exhausted! What were you doing out watching me?" Jericho flinched back, clearly having not expected this.

"Uh... Um..." The Prince's hands moved to his hips in agreement, and I could see a suspicious glare cross his face from the corner of my eyes.

"Well?" he prompted, "Good question." Jericho took a step back, now outnumbered.

"I was... I just... ugh." He slumped over in defeat. "I drugged you last night so I could kidnap you." The words took a moment to plant themselves in my mind, but when they did, I stumbled back, my eyes wide in disbelief. He had to be joking. Kidnap me? He was my friend! He'd saved my life from Dalila! He was an ally... right? The Prince seemed in a similar state, like he couldn't quite believe it either.

"Kidnap? What are you talking about?" The younger royal demanded. Jericho lifted his arms semi defensively as the Prince closed in on him. "Just what the hell is going on here, Jericho? Why would you want to kidnap Naomi? What are you hiding?" Jericho backed off, finally turning away from the both of us and leaned against the wall. he was quiet for a long moment, and then took in a deep breath and let it out heavily.

"Fine. I'll tell you everything. I guess I owe it to you... I'm going to get in so much trouble for this..." He spun on his heel and faced us, pressing his back to the wall. "I'm not just an ordinary soldier, Naomi. My wings are red, but I'm no Hunter."

"Then, what are you?" I asked, half anxious, half angry that he'd been up to something all this time.

"I'm a warrior. A Special Operations Agents under direct order of the Council." He looked up slightly, setting his eyes on my legs. "I was sent here with orders to bring you straight back to the Council, no matter what it took, as long as you were alive and able to face charges."

"Charges...?" I echoed quietly.

"Who's orders?" the Prince demanded. "And for what purpose?"

"Angelica got impatient after all the summoning letters she sent, so she sent me to go get her."

"Angelica...? The High Councilor? But... what does she want with me?" So many questions already... and every new piece of information Jericho revealed brought up more.

"I don't know what she wants, but it isn't because she wants to chat over a cup of tea... She has Hunters everywhere in Paradise, waiting for you to set foot back there."

"But why? What did I do? What are these charges you told us about? What's going ON?" I stepped closer to the older Prince, desperate to answer the questions swarming in my head.

"I don't know, I just do what I'm told." The Prince huffed loudly and folded his arms.

"Please, a Persian royal, just doing what he's told? That's sad." Jericho sneered at him and dropped his head down, letting his hair fall over his I could've sworn I saw a hint of sadness over his features.

"Don't think I want to be in this position, Brother," was all he said. The Prince huffed again, and opened his mouth to retort, but I stopped him.

"Sora..." He gave me a look, but when he saw mine, he took the hint. Now wasn't the time to berate his brother over family pride, as much as he wanted to.

"What do you mean, Jericho?" I asked, trying to keep my voice gentle so I wouldn't upset him.

"It means what it means," he replied, surprisingly calm, "I didn't pick this job, I was coerced into it." the Prince unfolded his arms, a slight look of curiosity creeping into the stubborn pride all over his face. "If I don't cooperate and do what they tell me to, then-" he cut himself off like he'd bit his lip. "Damn it..." I heard him utter. We were all quiet for a moment, waiting for him to say something. Jericho bit his lip like he was inwardly scolding himself, and the Prince and I stood eagerly by, wondering if he'd tell us, or if one of us would have to ask the burning question. Finally, I figured no one else was going to make a move.

"...Go on...What will they do?" Jericho didn't move for what seemed like forever. Eventually, he turned his head to the side, opened his mouth, closed it again, and sunk down even further. "...Jericho?"

"They..." he halted, seemingly unsure, but then let the rest slide out, "They'll kill Butterfly." This obviously meant something to the Prince because he practically leapt the distance between him and his brother and grabbed his shirtfront.

"They'll do what?" he screeched, "They have Butterfly? How? Why? If this is some kind of joke-" Jericho gripped his brother's hands and pushed him away.

"It isn't a joke, Sora. If I disobey orders in any way, Butterfly is the one who pays for it. It doesn't matter to them what happens to her. Or me, for that matter. They have rather low opinions of human born Angels."

"Human born?" the Prince repeated.

"Father... he's human. But Mother, she..." Jericho immediately tensed up. "You don't remember much about her... She was an Angel." The Prince wasn't stupid, but he was a bit slow sometimes. He's probably already pieced together that since his father was a human and his brother was an angel, his mother had to be the one he's inherited it from. But I guess having it spoken out loud was a different story. He just stood there and gaped a moment, his mind either running a thousand miles an hour, or at a snails pace.

"Our…mother?"

"No one knew except Father. It wasn't exactly a huge taboo back then to marry humans like it is now." I studied the Prince's reaction carefully. This was all news to him.

"She was…? But wait, then why are you… and why am I… how are you an angel and I'm not? Shouldn't we both be half?" Jericho shook his head.

"No. There are no halfbloods. It's impossible. A child is born to a Human and an Angel is either one or the other. You and Malik were the humans in the family," he explained. The Prince's face went emotionless. I could tell he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He was probably feeling like he'd been cheated out of something. But Jericho laughed softly. "Don't look so hurt, Sora. You were the lucky one."

"Lucky?" he spat the word out like it tasted something awful. But Jericho's smile faded fast and he dropped his gaze.

"Yes. Lucky." He paused. "It's not a pretty sight what they do to human born's up there. Just look at me. They tore my ass down from a Prince to a military dog!"

"But my mother was human and I wasn't treated that badly!" I protested. I hadn't ever really seen anyone being chastised for having a human parent, either.

"You've had a fake name working in your favor all this time, Angelina," Jericho answered solemnly, and maybe a little resentfully. I blinked and subconsciously stepped back.

"F...Fake?"

"Along with a fake family, fake history, and fake certification. Angelina Samira has an entire upstanding portfolio while Naomi Fox was filed under 'Deceased.'" My eyes widened and Jericho folded his arms. "I went though a full briefing before I came here. Someone went through a lot of trouble to hide your real identity. Though it looks like the High Councilor finally figured out who was who."

"Is... is that what she wants me for? Some kind of identity fraud that I didn't even know about?" I demanded. "I thought I..."

"I don't think that's why they instructed the entire military to search for you. Something else is going on with you." At this, a whole new type of serious crept across his face. "You need to leave the city, Naomi. It isn't safe here anymore. If scumbags like that," he gestured to the body of the assassin who tried to kill me last night, "can get in here undetected, Babylon is no longer a safe haven." I opened my mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, and closed it again.

"What if we just asked Father to up the guard patrols at night? Wouldn't that-"

"No good. Grounded soldiers would have no way of stopping a winged killer."

"But we have archers. Some of the best in the world!"

"Better, but still ineffective. Arrows can only go so far." The Prince looked like he wanted to argue, but deep down knew it made sense, so he sat there with a semi-pouty look on his face.

"Fine. Say we do leave. Where would we go that's any safer?" the younger royal demanded.

"I don't know. Anywhere but here. You're a decent navigator, Sora, you figure it out." I could've sworn I heard the Prince made a small 'I hate you' noise.

"But what about you?" I asked before anymore arguing could commence. "Are you coming too?" He shook his head.

"No. Can't. I have to report back. I'll make up some excuse why I'm empty handed."

"What about your sister? Won't they..."

"I'd rather not think about it. But I may know someone who has answers to all these questions. You just need to leave and find someplace to hide out for a while."

"And just how can we be sure we can trust you now?" the Prince asked suspiciously. Jericho rolled his eyes.

"Because if you don't, she might not live another day," he retorted, almost viciously, making both of us step back a little. That was enough to silence the Prince into cooperation.

"...Fine. Then what exactly do we do?" Jericho took a moment to think.

"We should tell Father about what's happened. You can do that. In the meantime, I'll get rid of that," he gestured at the deceased assassin, "and you two can figure things out from there." The brothers hesitantly agreed on this course of action. The Prince ran off to find the King and hopeful fill him in on what happened while Jericho took off with the body in broad daylight because he 'was good that way.' Whatever that meant. And I, who had somehow managed to once again get all tangled up in a huge gaggle of life threatening problems, just sat on my bed and let my mind catch up to me.

Sheesh, it seems like ever since I'd been thrown into this world I've had more problems than I know what to do with, and it was becoming tiresome. Although, I think I liked it better when the problems belonged to the Prince, rather than me... All I had to do was help. So now, I was in serious trouble with the Council for some unknown crime, my entire Angelic identity was false, Jericho had been working for them the whole time, the sky was falling, and I was out of my favorite lotion. And to think, several years ago, my biggest worries were how I'd do on my geometry tests...

Surprisingly enough, Jericho was the first to get back. To wish me luck before all hell broke loose, he'd told me.

"Maybe you don't have to go back," I suggested. "It's not like they can track your every move..."

"No, I'm stuck going back there one way or the other. They'll want to debrief me the second I get there and probably kick my ass for failing miserably. Not to mention I need to refill my pills." He growled at the mention of his condition and half heatedly slammed his fist against the wall. "I hate having to cling to those things. It's embarrassing needing them at all, much less needing so many..."

"Already? How many do you need?"

"I've been having to double up on them."

"What in the world for?"

"Remember when you were sick? I was so distracted with Dalila that I was forgetting to take them. I'm surprised I was sane enough to keep focused on it." By the look on his face, I could tell he was beating himself up.

"Well..." I began, trying to figure the best way to cheer him up, "For what it's worth, I thought you were a perfect gentleman. And I never would've guessed you were... erm..." He lightly snarled and I stopped, but his face quickly softened.

"Thank you." He folded his arms. "If it were up to me, I'd never take them again, but when I don't have them, I... I dunno... I always feel on the brink of... losing it, you know? Just losing myself... I hate it. Taking the medication keeps me away from the edge. So I won't fall over and go completely insane... Oh what am I even saying?" He let out a light hearted chuckle before turning back to me. " Don't listen to me. Just focus on yourself. Don't risk flying, keep your charm concealed... And cover your hair. It's a dead giveaway."

"...Okay... Thanks." He let out a big breath of air.

"If only..." he sighed, "If only the two of us didn't have such horrible lives. I liked you from the second we met. I mean, really liked you. And after all this, it seems like we've gotten so close. Sometimes It's almost like I know what you're thinking..." I tried my best to nod like I knew what he meant. "Argh, I must sound like some kind of idiot."

"No... it's sweet that you think that," I answered, though he was kind of weirding me out. He slumped against the wall and massaged his temples as though he could see right through me and knew he was freaking me out a little.

"Let me try that again, as normally as possible," he stated. "You're a nice girl, and I like you. If everything wasn't in such a mess, and always going to be in such a mess, especially me..."

"...I understand," I said before he could finish. He glanced at me quickly and dropped his gaze again.

"I should leave before Sora gets back. Lord knows he doesn't trust me now." I nodded.

"Kay." He got to his feet and headed for the balcony. "Thank you... for everything..." He paused momentarily as if looking for the right answer, which he didn't find, so he continued in silence. I followed him to the balcony. "Jericho... be careful, okay?"

"You be careful. You're more valuable than I am. ...To me anyway." I didn't get the chance to reply. He leaped off the balcony and the last thing I saw of him was his bright red wings.

* * *

Kiri: EEEE! THEY'RE BACK! THEY'RE BACK! GLEE!

Dark Prince: Shut up.

Kiri: No! You shut up!

Dark Prince: Make me.

Kiri: (bucket of water)

DarkPrince: o.o

Kiri: Uh huh, that's what I thought. Anyways, Now we all finally know the truth behind Jericho and his ever present mood swings!

Jericho: I do not have moodswings!

Kiri: ok... then...Now we all know the truth behind Jericho and his incredible bad-ass-ness! There, happy?

Jericho: Much Better.

Dark Prince: He's not as bad ass as me!

Kiri: I thought I told you to shut up! (shakes water bucket threateningly)

Dark Prince: 0.0;

Kiri: Anyway! Jericho's history is revealed, as is the mystery behind the Prince's mother and sister, and has corruption been unearthed in the Council? Why is Naomi important? Why is Jericho willing to give up his revenge? No one knows! Tune in next time for more lovely chaptery goodness! Ciao!


	18. Oasis

Chapter 21

There had been hardly any time to think when the prince and I left the palace. 'Bring only what we need,' he'd told me when we got back to our rooms. The prince, being a man, naturally was finished first. After several scrambles around my room, deciding what was a necessity and what could be left behind, we bade quick goodbyes to the King and headed out.

It had been several hours since then and the sun was starting to come up. The horses we'd taken before leaving were all but tired out from a long night of sprinting across the desert. I was a total amateur when it came to horseback riding, but thanks to the love of my life, I was getting better… sorta. Now, instead of getting thrown every ten minutes, I was only getting thrown every hour or so. You can't say that's not improvement!

Ahem. Anyway.

The Prince had apparently decided on a very roundabout way to get to Azad. Something about false trails and letting his father's message get there first. Oh, and he added something about Oasis'. I'm not sure exactly what he told me, but I wasn't about to ask him until the coast was clear.

It was just starting to warm up when we stopped in, guess where, an Oasis. That's probably what he said… whatever. We stopped in a particularly shady area where there was a tiny pool of water. The prince pulled the hood of his cloak down after dismounting his horse and came over to help me jump down. As the horses helped themselves to the cool, crystal clear water, the Prince pulled my hood down as well and gave me a comforting kiss before leading me to sit at the base of a large tree. We just sat in silence for a long time, neither one of us speaking, or moving. Well, except Princy. He was busy looking over the map he'd brought so we wouldn't get lost.

"…You're so quiet," he suddenly spoke up, though he was keeping his voice down. I glanced up to find him looking at me both sympathetically and curiously. I let out an inaudible sigh.

"I have nothing to say."

"I don't believe that. You always having something to say, whether or not anyone wants to hear it," he replied, attempting to joke, but half-heartedly.

"…I guess." At this, he slid closer to me and embraced me warmly.

"There's probably a million things going through that mind of yours," he murmured in my ear. "Most of it just begging to be put into words."

"Maybe." He held me tighter.

"…You're afraid, aren't you?" he asked gently. Well, I can't say he didn't smack the nail right on the head with that one.

"I'm terrified." He kissed my cheek.

"I know how it feels," he told me, "I felt the same way." I leaned into his chest and sighed. I'd only gotten a few hours of sleep, and it was starting to catch up with me. The adrenaline rush of having to run away had worn off and I was exhausted. Lucky for me, the Prince seemed to sense this. "Tired?" he asked gently, carefully stroking my blue hair. I only nodded. "Sleep, then. I will keep watch." I don't think I even heard the last few words, since the second he said 'sleep' I was already comfortable and only minutes later, I was out like a light.

"…_Ruins… the ruins… go to the ruins… go… hurry, Angel… to the ruins…"_

I felt… weird. It was the heat of the day by the time I woke up again, and I found myself to be a mass of sweat. The prince was gone, and in his place, serving as my pillow was his cloak. The horses were resting by nearby trees, their reins knotted tightly around the trunks. But that's not why I felt strange. I don't know why, but some little voice in the back on my head kept telling me it was time to go. Not urgently, like your sense of self-preservation that warns you when you're about to be chopped into little sticky pieces. No, it was just… telling me it was time to get going.

Yawning, I tossed my cloak off and stretched. First things first, gotta find the Prince, wherever he ran off to. Really, the least he could've done was left a note, not that I'd be able to read it to begin with, but that's not the point!

"So you're finally awake," a voice suddenly came out of nowhere, nearly making me jump ten feet out of my skin. I whipped around, finding my dear lover coming back from wherever he'd been. "You slept so soundly, I could've sworn you'd stopped breathing." I narrowed my eyes.

"Ha, ha, ha. Nice hat, Romeo." I was referring to the cloth thing on his head. You know… the cloth thingy. The same thingy he wore at the beginning on the first game during the raid on India? That thingy. It may have suited him then, but now it looked… a bit ridiculous.

"If you had just been where I was, you'd have one on as well. It isn't a fashion statement, I promise you," he replied, probably knowing that he did look kinda silly with it on.

"Why's that?" I asked, almost half-heartedly. He sat next to me.

"It's mid day, and the temperature is at it's peak. I don't know about you, but I would much rather put up with this thing that die of the heat."

"Oooooh! So _that's_ what that thing is for! I didn't know that."

"That wouldn't be a first."

"Hey! What's that supposed to-" He cut me off with a quick, unexpected kiss. I went with it for a moment, until I realized something… and pushed him off. "Yuck!" The Prince's expression quickly turned from confusion to playful anger.

"'Yuck'?" he repeated. I just wiped my lips and laughed.

"You're all sweaty!" I replied, still giggling. He put his hands on his hips.

"I kiss you and you say 'Yuck'?!" he demanded.

"I'm not into sweaty men! Go take a bath and try again later." The Prince narrowed his eyes playfully at me.

"The way I see it, Naomi," he paused just long enough to leap forward, grab my hands and pin me to the ground, "you're just as, if not more drenched in sweat than I am."

"So?"

"So…" He kissed me again. I didn't really notice the sweat this time around. I mean he did have a point. Both of us were hot and sticky because of the heat. But even so… that didn't save his breath.

"Ok, that's it! I don't care if you're a prince, either you go and clean yourself up, or you won't get any more sex! I mean that!" The Prince backed off of me, laughing his head off.

"Now what is it?"

"I've got two words to describe it! Toothbrush!" He kept laughing.

"Alright. No kissing, then. But we both need baths, anyway…"

"Prince… you better not be getting any ideas…"

"Oh… just a few." I glared at him. "Ok, seriously. It would be stupid of us to leave now while the heat is this bad, so any way we look at it, we're stuck here until at least mid afternoon." He shrugged. "We may as well make the best of it."

"Why do I get the feeling that you're other half is the one putting you up to this?" I asked monotonously.

"How'd you guess?"

"Well, I kinda figured he'd be a bit of a man-whore." The Prince almost doubled over laughing at this. I admit, I laughed a little myself. I could just imagine what Darkly must be saying in response right now.

"Oh, I think you got under his skin with that one," the Prince told me after he'd calmed a little.

"Let him brood there for the rest of his life for all I care. He can pout all he wants, it won't effect me." He was quiet for a brief moment, and then frowned slightly. I rolled my eyes. "What'd he say?"

"I'm not repeating it."

"Fine. Whatever. And will you take that thing off already? It's really hard to take you seriously like that!" The Prince silently reached up and pulled the garment off of his head and put it aside. A moment later, I felt his arms around me and his soft lips against my neck. I would've just let him do as his pleased, but I couldn't help myself. "…You realize that you smell, right?" At this, he let out a long exaggerated, exasperated groan and quickly got to his feet.

"Fine!" he exclaimed as I tried and failed to contain a fit of giggles. "I'll go take a bath!" He paused for a moment, but then swiftly scooped me up and tossed me over his shoulder before I had a chance to get away. "But you're coming with me! Hypocrite!"

"Hypocrite?!" I exclaimed, "I may be sweaty and sticky and nasty, but I do not smell like an armpit!"

"Oh, and I do?"

"Yeah! And furthermore, my breath is at the very least, tolerable! You could use a few million or so breath mints before—whoa!" He suddenly set me on my feet, a little forcefully, probably intending to shut me up.

"Advise me, Naomi," the Prince said calmly, as he backed me against a tree. "Should I indulge in this conversation further and enlighten you as to your own level of dirtiness, or should I just tear your clothes off and ravage you?" I lifted an eyebrow.

"Neither. You should go take a bath before that cloud of smelliness your emitting covers the whole planet and causes epidemic."

"You know, you're the only woman who can stand here and insult me, and I enjoy every second of it."

"…Enjoy it in what way?" I asked, lowering my voice. He stepped closer.

"…I think you know." So all I have to do is stand here and make fun of him, and it turns him on? Heh, I can live with that!

"Go take a bath, Galahad." At this, he backed off, seemingly disappointed, but also with that mischievous gleam in his eyes, which definitely foreshadowed fun to come.

"If it pleases you… Angel." He winked.

* * *

Kiri: wow. Sorry for the long wait, guys. I got some terrible writers block for a while, and I had finals... what a mess! But here it is, the next chapter! I hope you guys don't bite my head off... OH! SPECIAL MESSAGE FOR MY BUD, LORD SERAPHIM! eh... uh...

Naomi: ...you forgot while oyu were yelling, didn't you?

Kiri: NO! ...Maybe. ...yes...

Dark Prince: Ijit.

Mike: (sigh) what the authoress was about to say was that she's extremely sorry for not getting back to you for all this time about your chapter. She wasn't sure if you got her response about it, but when you sent it, somehow it got all ran together and all the punctuation was changed to question marks. How it happened, no one knows..

Kiri: YEAH! That! (grin)

Dark Prince: ...you're still an Ijit.

Kiri: ;-; meanie!

Mike: And that doesn't excuse you from not getting back to him for a month.

Kiri: ...WAAAHHH!!!!! (cries)

Dark Prince: Did you have to make you cry?! Now she'll never shut up!

Naomi: (putting in earplugs) well, that's why you comes prepared!

Dark Prince: ...fork those over.

Naomi: No.

Dark Prince: (looks at Kiri.) ...p-ple-easssse?

Naomi: Nu uh.


	19. The Dark Mark

Chapter 24

Everything was hazy. I felt light headed and dizzy. I could faintly hear talking and I could just make out the silhouettes of people. I think we were in a room… too blurry to tell. I couldn't decipher what it was that was being said, but the voices sounded like they belonged to a man and a woman.

But just as quickly as the images and sounds had come, they faded away, leaving me in darkness. I felt numb then… But not that numb, just-came-back-from-the-dentist-where-he-poked-me-with-all-sorts-of-sharp-metal-objects-even-though-he-tells-you-not-to-pick-your-teeth-with-sharp-metal-objects-the-hypocrite where you can't feel a bloody thing. No, it was more like a sad, melancholy numbness like you long to be able to feel, but can't. Like something prevents you…

That's when I heard it.

"…_Naooooooomiiiiiiii…." _It was soft and quiet, and drawn out like a snake hissing. _"Naaaaaooooommmmiiiii…. Heheh…"_ I realized that the sound seemed to be coming from all around me. _"Cooooome… folloooow… follooow meeee…" _My senses slowly came back online, though I was still out of it. But the first thing I became overly aware of was the cold sensation slowly slinking its way around my waist, gliding over my belly like slim, frozen fingers. Those icy finger-like what-ever-it-was continued winding around me like snakes, eventually stopping at my neck. My breath caught in my throat when a sudden cold whoosh of air on the back of my neck sent a nasty chill down my back. Then something pressed against my throat… something long and just as freezing cold as everything else… like someone's hand.

"_Come to me… I offer sanctuary…" _The voice hissed in my ear, which only made me more overly aware of my body. _"Come…"_ I tried to look down, but found I couldn't move. The hand on my throat slid over my neck and down to the back of my shoulder. _"Come…"_ Now unnerved, I began trying to get my body working again, but all efforts proved futile. _"Come to me…" _My shoulder started to burn, and as it steadily grew from burning to scolding, my attempts to get away increased. _"Come…"_ My eyes began to water. Whatever this thing holding me captive was doing, I was certain it was only bad news for me. Soon, all I could think about was the pain. The only thoughts on my mind were 'Get away! Get away! It hurts! It hurts so bad, hurry and escape!' _"Heh…heheh…heheheh…" _I couldn't take it. The pain was unbearable. Finally, I just opened my mouth and…

I screamed as I sat bolt upright in bed. Everything was silent as I heaved in a few ragged breaths and took in the layout of my darkened room. For a moment, the blackness of the environment irked me, and I bit my lip, the memory still fresh in my mind. As my mind began to slow and I started realizing I was awake, a wave of relief passed through me.

"A dream…" I murmured. "Only a dream…" Even though I wasn't entirely convinced. My shoulder still tingled from burning, and I still felt that horrible chill.

Sighing, I dropped back on the bed and covered up with the blankets. Edan was still sleeping peacefully next to me, and had yet to wake up to be fed. Smiling slightly, I snuggled up to my infant son gently kissed the side of his head. His birth had really done a number on me. It was left me so beaten and rained of energy that I'd spent two weeks in bed, trying to recover. That made caring for him a little difficult, but some older maids had come in and shown me the ropes. You know, breast-feeding and whatnot.

My strength had mostly returned since then, and I'd resolved to get out of bed tomorrow. Maybe take a walk with the Prince. Depends on how I feel. I have my good days and bad days. But I wasn't going to be doing anything unless I got back to sleep!

I awoke that morning to the burning sensation in my shoulder. Annoyed, I tried to ignore it at first but that only made things worse. I rubbed it, scratched it and smothered it with my hand, but it kept burning. Finally, I got out of bed, careful not to wake Edan and went to the mirror. But just as I was about to look, someone knocked on my door and entered without waiting for my ok. That could only be the prince.

"Naomi?" He glanced around, probably expecting me to still be in bed, and found my by the mirror. "Oh, you're up already. That's a surprise."

"And you're point is?" I responded, trying to be sarcastic, but smiling just the same. He came over to me and embraced me.

"My point is you're lazy."

"I am not!"

"Want to bet on that? I'm always the one having to wake you up for breakfast."

"Whose breakfast, mine of Edan's?" He shrugged.

"Either one. But it's good to see you back on your feet."

"You said that yesterday." I'd been trying to slowly get back into walking so I wouldn't have to deal with floppy limbs. Again. "And the day before that."

"Well, after seeing what you were like only a week ago…"

"I know, I know! But I'm better now, so—" I suddenly noticed that my shoulder was no longer burning. That's weird… it's was frying up a storm just a second ago… Huh, must've just been a nerve on the fritz. But you can never be too careful… I turned back to the mirror again and was once again about to look, when Edan woke up. I visibly slumped over in exasperation, which made the Prince chuckle. He came over and hugged me from behind.

"The boy's probably hungry."

"He IS hungry. He's ALWAYS hungry. He's draining me dry!" The Prince laughed.

"Well, you go feed him. I'll save you something from the table." I just nodded, earning myself a kiss on the cheek and with that he was gone. Though, I couldn't help but laugh when I heard a muffled "Shut up!" from in the hallway. Dark Princy strikes again!

Because Edan eats like a freaking cow, the Prince ended up bringing my breakfast up to me. And as usual, he jumped at the chance to fuss over the boy while I ate. It was kinda of comical, in a way. He was just going on and on about what a great warrior he'd grow to be and how he was going to teach him everything he knew and so and so forth. Then again, I was also a bit aggravating. He was my son, too, damn it! Don't I have a say in this?! I know the Prince is all excited about this, but there is NO way in shanaynay that I'm about to sit back and let him send the boy off to some kind of stupid battle and get chopped into little sticky pieces! Nu uh. No way. I finally had to say something.

"Prince, I know you're all excited about this, but uh, you do realize that if he gets himself killed as a result of all your so-called 'teachings' I'm going to castrate you and then murder you in your sleep, don't you?" I asked, somewhat sarcastically. I saw his shoulders slump a little as he turned to me.

"The boy has to know how to defend himself, Naomi!" he argued.

"Then fine. Teach him to defend himself. But I absolutely forbid you from sending him off to war!"

"But how else is he going to get experience?" he was almost whining by now.

"Don't know, don't care. Because he's NOT going to go fight battles." He just gave me a look, but I just turned away. "Oh, and don't even think about doing it behind my back, either, Sora!" He sighed loudly.

"Fine," he agreed solemnly. "Have it your way."

After I finished eating, I pushed my tray aside and got up to find my regular clothes. I knew the Prince was watching me very intently, with lord-knows-what going through his mind. Pervert. But when I slipped off my nightshirt, I heard him suddenly get up. I looked back at him to see him coming toward me.

'What?" I inquired.

"What's this?" he asked.

"What's what?" He brushed his fingers against my shoulder, the same one that had been burning earlier. He was quiet for a moment.

"…When did you get a tattoo?" he asked curiously. I, on the other hand, almost hit the floor.

"A… _what_?!"

"A tattoo. When did you get it?" I didn't answer, but rather, just stood there feeling sick, hoping to whatever Gods would listen he was joking. "And who did it? I've never seen one like this… but it's actually very nicely done. What is it? It looks like fire to me." at this point I rounded on him.

"I never got a freaking tattoo!" I cried. He gave me a blank looked, which quickly turned to confusion. I darted to the mirror and looked, hoping he was delusional. But to my horror, there it was, plain as day on my shoulder. Not very big, but very visible, spooky looking red and black flames sprouting from a spiral like center and weaving outwards like long, fiery fingers. At I looked, memories of the dream from last night came whizzing back to me. That thing… whatever it was and touched me in that exact same place and caused the burning. I felt that same burning earlier. But I didn't get the chance to find out what it really was. So… did that mean it… wasn't a dream? I felt nauseous.

"Naomi?" the Prince spoke up, now concerned. "You're pale… are you alright?" I swallowed hard as my breakfast tried to come right back up.

"I… I think I need to lay down…" At this news, the Prince quickly came over to me and picked me up, then set me back on my bed. My head was buzzing with questions and bursting at the seams with fear. Where the hell had that thing come from? Who was responsible? Just what the hell was going on here?!

* * *

Kiri: sorry once again for the ridiculously long wait! some stuff was going down at school, which took all my attention away... freaking AP test registration, leaving my boyfriend, trying to finish a book in like, two days... yeah. hectic. But anyways, I've added a new twist in, so hopefully that will make up for it.

Naomi: Great! Now I have a freaking tattoo to worry about! What the heck! I thought you said I wasn't going to have a freaking dark side!

Kiri: I did.

Naomi: that... WHAT THE CRAP?!

Kiri: Teehee.

Prince: I like it.

Naomi: Of course YOU like it! You're covered with them as it is! I've never had so much as a henna! My mom is going to kill me!

Kiri: You're mom isn't even here!

Naomi: Oh, she'll find a way! She's find some way to tear a hole in the time-space fabric and chew my ass out for this!

Prince: i think you're just over reacting...

Naomi: (glare)

Prince: erm... a little...

Naomi: (GLARE)

Prince: (sweatdrop) uh... STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT!

Dark Prince: Baby.

Prince: I am not a baby!

Dark Prince: Baby.

Prince: Kiriiiiiiiii!!

Kiri: Don't look at me... he's YOUR darkside.

Prince: but-but-but...

Dark Prince: if you can't even handle you're own woman glaring at you, then that makes you a pathetic, immature fool.

Prince: ... JUST LEAVE ME ALOOONE!!

Kiri: I better end this before the prnce degrades himself to running off to a corner and crying. That's my job! Anyways... Spring reak is comming up, so hopefully then I'll be able to get up some more chapters for y'all! Maybe even finish part 3... (GASP) so until then, ciao!


	20. The Beginning of the End

Chapter 25

I spent a good half of the day back in bed, fighting nausea, trying to figure things out. So far, I hadn't come up with a single explanation for where the ugly brand on my shoulder had come from and what connection it had to my dream. By afternoon, I gave up and decided to stop thinking about it all together.

When the Prince came up to check on me, I was feeling better, and he, being the great observer he was, took notice to that. After a brief chat about my health and the tattoo, I had to make him drop the subject. Then he casually made a reference to the beautiful weather outside and suggested a walk. Since I hadn't been outside in forever, I took him up on his offer, got dressed (again) and grabbed Edan.

We talked about this and that as we walked, slowly, but casually traversing the upper level courtyards. It was almost creepy how I remembered this place so well from… well, you know. I wondered vaguely if the Prince felt the same. Sure, we may have been here almost a year already, but it was hard to look at the Palace of Azad differently. I still half expected Sand Monsters with big Axes to come running around the corner at any moment. All we were missing at this point was…

"Farah…" I heard the Prince mumble. Slightly surprised I glanced sideways at him.

"What?" He looked back at me and gave a lighthearted smile.

"The only thing we're missing to make this an almost perfect replica of what happened. Farah," he explained.

"Funny, I was just thinking the same thing." The Prince looked away momentarily and gazed off at the sky. I couldn't put my finger on it at first, but I noticed that he looked… sad. …WAIT a minute, bub! Why are you… How could you… What about…! ARGH! There was definitely no denying the pinch of jealously I felt when I put two and two together. We'd gone through all that crap together, were now in hiding from the Hunters, which mind you, he didn't even have to come with me but chose to anyway because he loved me, and he was thinking about another woman! And here I was holding his kid! JERK!

"Prince," I said, snapping him out of his thoughts, "I hope for your own sake you aren't reminiscing about Farah in a way that's going to get me upset and you seriously injured." His face paled slightly.

"Uh… No! Of course not!"

"Sora…" I gave him a warning glare.

"Naomi, I wasn't! Honest, I just…"

"Just what?"

"I was just… thinking… about… how we're going to clear your name!" he tried. I was so not buying it.

"Liar." I turned away from him.

"Naomi! Give me a break!" Whether it was the Prince's whining tone or the look on his face like a child caught with his hands in the cookie jar, Edan broke out into giggles. I looked down at Edan's chubby little face and smiled.

"Yes, I know, baby… Daddy's being unfaithful to Mommy and doing a pitiful job at hiding it."

"Naomi!" I quickly joined my son giggling. Then I felt the Prince's heavy hands on my shoulders. "Come on, Nay, I can't help it!"

"I know you can't, Prince… You're a man, after all…" Then I rounded on him. "But you're MY man, you hear? Not anyone else's. This little bundle of joy in my arms proves that!" he visibly slumped down.

"Yes, dear."

"Hmm, internal strife? Or do you enjoy acting like an old married couple?" The new voice sent chills down my back. Familiar chills. Oh. I recognized this feeling… that gut twisting feeling is though my stomach were tying itself into knots… I thought I'd rid myself of it forever.

"Dalila!" The Prince beat me to the words and immediately pushed me behind him. "What the hell are you doing here!" I could almost small the rage in his voice. The red-clad demon Succubus had hardly changed since I last saw her, with the exception of the black bat-like wings on her back. Everything else, from her spooky green eyes to her unearthly silky voice was the same. She just smiled smugly and looked at her nails.

"Oh, nothing, I just came to congratulate you on the new baby." At thuis, I automatically held Edan closer to my chest. "Quite an impressive feat, an Angel having a child. Do you know what the odds are of that? Yet somehow, you pulled it off." She gave a mock applaud. "Well done, dear."

"If you so much as touch my son—" the Prince began, his voice deep and threatening. Dalila just waved it off.

"Well, aren't you confident. Put a sock in it, Sora, darling. You really have no place to be calling him your son, anyway. There's a very distinct chance the little brat isn't yours at all." The Prince's expression turned to confusion, but he didn't leave his defensive stance.

"What?"

"Oh, you haven't forgotten, have you?" Dalila's lips twisted into a cruel smirk. I knew what was coming. I'd feared this moment would come… right from the moment I'd found out I was pregnant. I knew the time would come when the holy war over who Edan's real father was would come crashing around us like a tidal wave.

"Forgotten what?" he demanded. This wasn't going to end well.

"You have forgotten! Goodness, Sora, I always thought you were a little stupid, but now… oh!" she giggled tauntingly, which did nothing but aggravate the Prince and prolong my last few moments of a peaceful engagement. But before he could yell at her to stop playing with him, she looked back to him. "Don't you remember our glory days, Prince? Think, who was your precious angel with when we were engaged?" it didn't take long. Not even a second. He left his defensive stance and just stood there limply.

"…Jericho…" he was remembering now. Remembering that I'd gone to bed with Jericho several times before I'd broken the law and fell in love with him.

"Aw, now you're catching on!" Dalila grinned triumphantly. "You see, darling? The boy could be the flash and blood of your own brother! Whom, I might add, was caught by the Hunters around the same time you were chased from Babylon." I perked up.

"What?!" I exclaimed. Jericho? Caught? But how?

"Yes, I believe it was your little accident that let slip his location. If you hadn't let those pathetic feelings of your get in the way, The Hunters wouldn't have come to find you and they wouldn't have found the poor fool." I could hardly believe it. Jericho… in prison again. This time because of me. Because I had let the Prince love me. If I had just held back… just a little longer, maybe… And Sora. He was looking miserable enough, too. It must've been killing him, finding out after all this time that his son might not even be his, but Jericho's. Even I didn't know for sure, but I was none too eager to bring it up. I felt dizzy. Sick, even.

That bitch in red had only been here a few minutes and she had already screwed things up! She had ruined everything for a second time! The Prince sullenly looked back at me. He just looked for a moment, and then sighed heavily.

"And you called me unfaithful…" he said softly. My heart almost popped out of my chest and ran for the hills.

"What?!" I cried, unable to believe what I'd just heard, "Prince, it was before we were even together!" Edan whined in my arms and scrunched up his face like he was about to cry. I quickly tried to comfort him. "Shh, it ok, baby, no need to cry…"

"I can't believe it! How could I forget?!" the Prince exclaimed, his voice both angry and hurt. "Naomi, why?! Why didn't you say something when we first found out you were pregnant? Why did you lead me on?! How could you do that to me?!" I held Edan closer, fearing for a moment he might hit me. He wouldn't, though… he couldn't harm a woman with a baby in her arms… right?

"I…" I didn't know what to say. "I… thought you already knew… and I didn't want to upset you."

"And you thought letting me conveniently find out would make things any better?!"

"My, such controversy brought about by such a small thing," Dalila's smooth voice broke in, silencing us both. She was slowly approaching us, and Edan's fidgeting in my arms was continuous as she approached. "Honestly, Sora… you really shouldn't blame her as much as you should blame your own self. Forgetting such an important piece of information like that, honestly." She looked at me, "And I'm certain that dear Theron, whatever prison block he may be in, wouldn't like the idea of not knowing who the true father of that little brat really is any more that Sora." I stepped back as she came dangerously close to me and tried desperately to keep a good firm grip on Edan, whom was whining and wiggling around madly. No doubt Dalila's presence had the same effect on him as it did me. I had to protect my son from that demon bitch any way I could, but he really wasn't making it easy for me.

"Haven't you done enough here already?!" I yelled angrily. "Caused us enough pain?!" She stopped and looked surprised.

"Oh, no, It was never my intention to cause you distress, darling," she cooed mockingly, that sickening sweet, yet victorious smile never leaving her lips. What a bald faced lie! "All I intended to do was bring the truth to light for both of you. And sometimes the truth hurts." Sora, probably still trying to decide if he trusted me any longer or not, just stood by, his eyes glued to the floor. "But if it's all so painful for you, I would gladly take it upon myself to liberate you from the cause of your distress." Yes, leave! That would be a wonder on its own!

"That'd be great," I shot back nastily, my voice dripping with hate and sarcasm. She looked me right in the eye and her smirk seemed to get twice as wide. It made me nervous.

And suddenly, before I knew what was happening, she used those large demonic wings of hers and shot forward, shoving me in the chest hard enough to knock me on the ground. I heard her laughing as I recuperated from the attack, and raised my arms in defense incase she tried again. Then I noticed. Edan. _Where was Edan?!_ I looked up in horror to See the wretched demon still in the air, laughing triumphantly. In her arms, screaming and kicking, was my son. I screamed.

At the sound of my panicked voice, the Prince jumped back into action, but what could he do? He was grounded and unarmed. Useless. The again, I hadn't worn my wings in almost a year. I wasn't doing any better than he was.

"Well dear, you said it's be great if I took away the source of all of this trauma, so I have!" No, not Edan, please not Edan… not my only son…

"You bitch!" the Prince cried, "give him back or I'll—"

"Or you'll what, Sora? What can you do? I'll tell you: Nothing!" and she laughed wickedly. Hot tears spilled from my eyes and streaked my face, but I didn't care. I just wanted my little boy back!

"Don't hurt him!" I screamed desperately, "Please, don't hurt him!" My pleas fell on deaf ears as Dalila laughed in her victory. But she soon stopped as Edan's screams got louder and his thrashing more violent.

"Ugh, noisy little animal, isn't he? Disgusting, too. How in the world you could possibly show love for such a repulsive creature eludes me."

"Please…" I tried again, "give him back… please… he's my only son…" I was begging. But I didn't care. I had to get him back. I had to protect my son!

"Oh, Angel, how naïve you are," she mocked, "you allow your pitiful emotions to cloud your judgment. If only you could see yourself… I'm doing you a favor, really, removing this little parasite from the equation. You'll thank me some day." I couldn't tell if she was really, honestly telling me that, or making fun of me in the worst way, probably the latter, but that didn't matter. My baby… she still had my baby… and she was going to do god-knows-what to him!

"Please! Just let me have him back!" I cried, my voice trembling horribly with fear. She ignored me and hovered to the edge of the courtyard and stood on the stone wall, smiling diabolically at me, she held Edan out so he dangled over the edge. My heart nearly stopped.

"Dalila, for Gods sake, stop it!" the Prince yelled, probably as panicked as I was. My eyes were fixed on Edan I just knew he was terrified. He knew he was in the wrong hands and he wanted to get back to his mommy, but his delicate little body wasn't strong enough to fight back! I had to get to him… I had to! Finally, I broke into a run. I had to get to him… I had to protect him!

But just as I started to think there was hope… Dalila let go. I stopped dead. Then I screamed. Then I fainted.

* * *

Kiri: I don't think much has to be said here. but anyways, I managed to got this chapter figured out... for those who read the first chapter of my latest work, Which and the Warrior, you'll know what I mean when i say that. But considering I've had ZERO reviews on it so far, not many of you would know that, would you?! But anyway, I'll probably end up updating these two simultaneously, and i've also decided it's high time to do some rewriting of my old work, to. But enough about that, I need a shower. So until next time, ciao!


	21. The Calm and the Storm

Chapter 26

The Prince was in my room waiting for me to wake up when I finally came to. After he confirmed what had happened actually happened, we had a single moment of a silent embrace before all hell broke loose.

We'd never screamed so loud before. It was awful, the things we said to each other. He called me a lying whore for sleeping with his brother. I called him a murderous bastard for not protecting me from Dalila. He accused me a leading him on to intentionally hurt him. I told him he was a selfish, undeserving bastard. He smacked me. I punched him. Then he shoved me on the bed and stormed out.

I'd never cried so hard in my life.

Time passed, but I hardly noticed. I wasn't even aware of what was happening to me, I was so lost in my depression. I couldn't sleep, since every time I closed my eyes I saw everything all over again as vividly as it had happened and food was the last thing on my mind.

It was midnight, or at least close to midnight when I decided a shot flight out in the moonlight might help me think. Without giving it much thought, I opened the bed-side table drawer and pulled out my charm. When I put it around my neck and brought my wings out, it was like being reunited with an old friend. It was like I finally had a piece of myself back after a long time. I was complete again.

With a heavy heart, I looked out to the night sky, remembering my sweet little boy. Tears once again came rushing back, but I fought them. Any more crying and I'd turn into a pile of sand! Rubbing my eyes, I stepped forward and burst into flight. I was a bit rusty at first, not having flown in nearly a year, but it's like riding a bike: once you learn you never forget.

As I flew farther and farther from the palace of Azad, I let my mind wander over all that had happened. I thought about the Prince, Edan, even the old days. The fun days. I never really realized it, but despite all the pain and anguish, things seemed so much better then than now. That was before I'd gotten involved with the Prince. Before I'd even come to Babylon. Maybe Edan's death had been a sign. A sign that the Prince and I really didn't belong together after all… But how could that be? Being with him, breaking the law with him, running away with him… it had all felt so… right. How could my instincts tell me one thing, and yet fate tell me another? That made no sense. Then again, Edan might not have been the Prince's child at all.

My thoughts turned to Jericho, the man whom had been discovered and imprisoned because of my stupidity. If I hadn't gone to bed with the Prince, none of this would've ever happened. All I had to do was say no and keep a firm resolve, if only for just a little longer… but I couldn't. Now my carelessness was retuning to haunt me.

My body was seemingly becoming increasingly heavy, like all my guilt was weighing me down. Sighing, I let it drag me down. It was all my fault that this had happened. Sora had been right to call me all those things. I was a lying whore. I had led him on, not intentionally, but I'd hurt him nonetheless. I was causing more pain than good and no matter how hard I tried to help, my actions only continued to backfire and harm those around me.

I suddenly stopped and looked up at the night sky. Maybe it was time to call it quits. I was a wanted criminal, after all… Maybe it was time to stop hiding and let whatever the council had in store for me happen.

But before I could do anything, without warning, I was suddenly yanked out of the sky by the ankle and before I could fight back, I found myself face flat on the ground. I tried to get up, but before I could even see what had pulled me out of the sky, something heavy was thrown over me. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but my instinct took over and I fought to free myself.

"Tie it down! Don't let her get away!" I heard someone yell and I realized I was being barraged by large, heavy ropes. At this revelation, I fought like mad to get away, to wiggle out of them, anything, but the harder I struggled, the tighter they became. Son, they were like a blanket binding me to the cold jungle floor. Finally, I gave up.

"There. Target secured, sarge." I opened my eyes to look at my captors. One was coming toward me. But the first thing I noticed wasn't his face, or uniform, but his wings. His _bright red _wings. Uh oh.

He was a middle-aged man, and looked like a typical drill sergeant. All he was missing was a hat and the sunglasses. His hair was showing a little gray and his skin was sun bleached from years in the skies. He slowly knelt down neck to me, as though making absolutely sure I was really there. After looked me over fore the longest time, his thick eyebrows knitted together and he started to stoke my cerulean hair with his large, calloused hand.

"So we've finally got you, Angelina," he began. I wasn't really sure if me was really telling me that, or mocking me. I tried to move my arms to smack his hand away, but I couldn't budge. "It took us a longtime to track you… who would've guessed we'd find you during an investigation of demon presence." There was no sarcasm in his voice at all. Sure it was easy to tell he was glad he'd caught me, but I'd expected some kind of ridicule from the likes of a Hunter. "Damn shame… young gorgeous think like you busted for something so… miniscule. What the hell were you thinking, girl." It was more of a statement than a question. I just tried to turn my head to my face was in the mud.

"Hey, Sarge, are we gonna book her or are you gonna sit there petting her all night?" one of the other, younger, more obnoxious Hunters called. At this, he suddenly grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked, shoving my face into the ground and revealing my marks.

"Alright boys," he began confidently, "lets get going!" I heard some cheering and the sergeant got up and walked away from me to let his boys do the rest.

Once I saw how many Hunters were with him (six at least) I started crying again. I'd been caught. After all this time, they finally got me! How could this day possibly get any worse now? My family was split apart, I was already a wanted felon, and now… There was no way I could escape from six Hunters. I was stuck. No telling what would happen to me now… No one even knew I was out here. They'd all just wake up, scratch their heads and possibly go searching, but they wouldn't find me. Meanwhile, I'll be in prison, awaiting my sentence.

And the Prince… What would he do when he found out that I was gone? Would he look for me? Miss me? Would he give a damn that I was gone? What would he think? That I'd run away? My shoulder began to burn. I had to think of something and fast. I had to get myself out of this mess or I was going to be at the mercy of the council.

But thank the stars that for once, the fates were on my side that moment.

"LET HER GO!" Only a second after I heard those words, something swiftly and cleanly sliced through my ropes. I looked up just in time to see the Prince's familiar form poised in front of me, his blade out and ready to cut off someone's head.

"Prince…?" I said dumbly, almost unable to believe my eyes.

"Wrong, sweetheart," he growled viciously. Different voice. I knew it was too good to be true. "If you could get in to more trouble, I swear…"

"What is this?" the sergeant demanded.

"Oh look. The daring Prince come to rescue his lover!" someone piped up mockingly. The Dark Prince growled menacingly as the group laughed.

"Wow. I'd almost forgotten what you're voice sounded like," I commented.

"I'm flattered. Now if you're finished wasting time, make my life easier and LEAVE!" I jumped at his words, but I wasn't about to argue. Ignoring the sharp pain from my searing shoulder, I clumsily got to my feet and took off into the sky.

"Don't just stand there you nimrods! Go get her!" the sergeant yelled, almost sounding panicked. I picked up speed when I heard wings, trying to put as much distance between them and me as possible. I had to shake them and find a place to hide, since there was no way I would be able to outrun them.

I swerved, I turned, I loped and did everything in the book to try and throw them off my tail, but every time I looked over my shoulder to se if I'd made any progress, there they all were, except for the sarge, who was probably back at the start fighting Darkly.

I still couldn't believe it. Of all the crazy ass things that could've happened, I was saved by the one person I least suspected. After almost a year of silence from him (for me, at least) there he was, swooping in to rescue me… oh, it was almost romantic…

"Now I have you!" Crap! One of them grabbed me, but in a moment of panic, I somehow managed to throw him off. How could I let myself start day dreaming at a time like this?! For the love of the Gods, Naomi, pull your head out of your ass and focus!

I picked up speed and tried to do just that. The only problem was that they were still faster than me. Ok, time for some fancy stuff. More loops! More spins! More crap I haven't done in months! Boy, was I out of shape. Thankfully, before the Hunters could catch up to me and take me down for the count, I spotted a crevice in the ground out of the corner of my eye. And low and behold, it looked like I could just manage to squeeze through! Well, well, it looks like my luck is changing! It's about time, too! Ok, there's the crevice… now all I have to go is slip through… and I'll… be... home……

"Oh crap, I'm stuck!"

"Well, that wasn't very smart, was it, Angel?" I heard one of the Hunters comment from the above ground. Uh oh.

"And to think… it took us a year to find her."

"I don't know about you guys, but I have noticed a lack of discipline lately."

"There must be, if we can't catch someone like that." Ok, that's it!

"HEY! Who are you calling stupid! Let's me out of here and I'll show you just how stupid I am!" I yelled, flailing my limbed around madly, trying to squirm free. Stupid rocks, let go! I heard some laughing up above, which only made me struggle harder. How dare they laugh at me while I'm stuck like this! Ooh, I'll make them pay… just as soon as I get out of here. Ok… calm down. Think about this. Hmm, well, it seems fairly obvious. Ok, Naomi, suck it in, girl!

I took in the deepest breath I could to make my belly at concave as possible and continued to push and shove my way through. I pushed, and pushed… and pushed even more… and finally… _pop!_ And I left a nice big flap of skin on the rock as proof of my accomplishment. Ha! Now let those stupid Hunters make fun of me! Let's see how they like me now that I… where'd they go?

"You do realize that there was a larger surface crack only a few feet away from that one, don't you?" …Meep. I slowly turned around and came face to face with… you guessed it… the red winged avengers themselves! There wasn't much light, but I could see the one who just spoke pointing upward. I looked to where he pointed. And, yep1 wouldn't you know, there was a nice big crack right there, big enough to fit a moose through! "Come on, girl, why don't you just give it up already? It's darker than a dungeon down here, we're all tired, and you're basically cornered."

"What, give up and let you arrest me and drag me away to my death? Well, sorry, but you see this head? The one with blue hair? I kind of LIKE IT where it is, thank you!" And with that, I darted downwards into the black abyss that I'd wiggled myself into. Although, I couldn't shake off the feeling that… I don't know… that I wasn't supposed to be here? And the deeper I went into the gorge, the stronger it became.

I didn't stop. I couldn't I just kept flying down… down… down, to the bottom to the abyss, ignoring the cold feeling in my gut and the constant chills that were running down my spine. Soon, I was surrounded by total blackness. Everything was dead still, except for the sound of my wings and the Hunters. I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face, let alone where I was going. I felt cold, and unwelcome. And that insistent burning in my shoulder…every inch of my better half was screaming at me, begging me to turn back and leave. But I didn't. I was running and pure instinct now. I had to get away from the Hunters. If I couldn't lose them in this blackness, then I'd never shake them. I had to keep going. I had to…

But suddenly, the feeling vanished. Startled by this, I stopped in mid air. I looked around, but saw nothing. There was no light at all now. No light, no sound, nothing… where was I now? And… where were the Hunters? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I'd lost them a long time ago! The wings I'd heard had been from my own feathers! But I'd failed to realize that. Now I was completely alone. Completely alone in this think darkness. I was safe. But now… how would I get out?

I started to panic again. I had nothing to go by. No landmarks, nothing to point me in the right direction… I didn't even know which direction was which! The faint light from the crevices were gone, and who knows how big this place was. I'd never find them again! I was stuck down here!

"…Oh… no…" I felt tears well up in my eyes. I've done some stupid things in my life… but this one takes the cake. Just when I was ready to let loose and start screaming and crying, a small beam of light suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Then another clicked on. Then another… and another. I squinted at the lights flashed in my eyes, but as they adjusted, I quickly recognized the outlines of… the Hunters. For a split second, I felt like swooping over there and hugging the life out of one of them.

"You realize you're in a forbidden zone, don't you?" the one in front said.

"That's awful brave of you, got to admit."

"Yeah, but there's no telling what's down here. Come on, let's just get the hell out of here!"

"I vouch for that!"

"Sorry, guys," I said shakily, trying to ignore the now very noticeable pain in my shoulder, "but I'm not going anywhere with you."

"Looks to me like you have no choice."

"No! I'm not going to be put in jail for something as stupid as… well, you know! I'm not going to let the council kill me or the Prince for… why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, taking notice to the look of horror on their faces. The one in front slowly raised his hand and pointed.

"…There's… something right behind me… isn't there?" I squeaked. He slowly nodded. My heart began pounding. Slowly, I turned around… and found myself staring into a huge pair of bright, glowing red eyes. And they looked none too happy to see me.

* * *

Kiri: ...I offer no excuses. I'm really sorry to all my readers whom have been waiting for the next chapter after that terrible cliffy at he end of the last chapter... I had a hell of a time throwing this one together! I must've deleted it about twelve times before settling on this one! That, and it's almost the end of the school year, so things had been getting hectic around here. Again, I'm really sorry for the long ass wait... I hope the length of this chapter kinda makes up for it.


	22. Final Chapter

Final Chapter

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" I shrieked as I darted away from the monstrosity and hid behind the Hunter, my fingers clutching his shoulders so hard my knuckles were white. "DO SOMETHING!"

"Like what?! What do you expect me to do?!" he shouted back, probably just as panicked as I was.

"I don't know! You're the Hunter, you figure it out!"

"I don't think I'm authorized to—WHOA!" We just barely managed to dodge a huge hand swatting at us. The rest of the Hunters quickly scattered in all directions, leaving us there to get swatted again and set flying back into the rock wall. Of course, it was my dumb luck that I got full blast of it and slammed into the rocks first, followed by the Hunter, which basically knocked the breath out of me. "It looks like we just became temporary allies," he huffed.

"Yeah… great…" I coughed again, tying to pull more air into my lungs. "Lose some weight while you're at it," I looked at the Angelic letters on his neck, "Aaron."

"Yeah, funny," he replied, but then, "WATCH IT!" Before I knew what was happening, he grabbed me around the waist and quickly darted downward, just missing getting smashed into the wall by a massive fist. We both hovered there as the other hunters rejoined us, and all over us just stayed there, gaping up at the huge… gigantic… pissed off as hell monstrosity that we'd woken up that was now roaring angrily and readying itself to crush us into paper dolls. I could just see the name of this guy popping up at the bottom of the screen like in Zelda: TWILIGHT MONSTER: Pissed off Mutant that's been here for who knows how long!

"…meep," I squeaked.

"Great! Now what the hell do we do?!" one of the Hunters yelled.

"Easy! Stay our ass's alive!"

"But we're in a forbidden zone! That thing is here for a reason!"

"Who cares! I'd much rather not go home in a coffee can!"

"All of you shut up!" Aaron yelled, but before he could finish, we all had to scatter before another huge fist almost had our names on it. I completely ignored the fact that my shoulder felt as though there was a scolding hot iron on it and frantically looked for a way out. But before I could find one, Aaron suddenly snatched my arm.

"You go back to the surface!" he ordered.

"What?! Why?! What about you!?"

"Even if you're a wanted felon, you're still just an ordinary citizen and it's my job to protect you! Now quit asking questions and GO!"

"But-"

"We have to calm this guy down and make sure he doesn't destroy anything that might be holding the entire palace of Azad up!" he answered before I could ask.

"Ok, but-"

"But what?!"

"…I don't know where the exit is!" I saw only a flash of the 'oh-you've-GOT-to-be-kidding-me' look before he dove at me to dodge the monster's huge hand gain. After a quick recovery, I looked up to see the other Hunters darting around in the air, slashing at the beast mercilessly with their weapons. Unfortunately for them, it looked like their efforts were only making it mad. I looked back to Aaron, who was probably trying to figure out if he should waste anymore time on me or go help his men.

"Hey, how about I just go hide out while you guys clean up here?" I suggested, with a cowardly grin to match. But before he could answer, I heard a loud yelp as one of the Hunters was smacked and came flying in our direction. Aaron and I scattered, but while he ran off to help his comrades, I went to find a nice place to hide. Of course, that place just happened to be a rather large bolder off in a corner.

From my hiding place, I watched the Hunters try their hardest to subdue the ridiculously huge giant monster. Well, ok, I couldn't really see the Hunters, or the monster. All I really saw was the light from the flashlights on their chests and the monster's silhouette, but it was only obvious that the now thoroughly pissed off whatever it was was whopping their butts. But I just sighed and tried very hard to ignore the constant yelling of 'What is this thing and why won't it DIE?!' and 'Oh God! My organs!' and 'My sword! Where the hell is my sword?!'

I also suddenly noticed that the whole time I'd been running from them, my shoulder had been burning like it never had. Cringing, I brushed my fingertips against it, hoping it would stop soon. Ever since that weird ass dream, it had been getting worse and more frequent. I don't know what this thing is, but will someone please get it off?!

"Naomi!" I quickly looked up to see a certain familiar shadow, vaguely illuminated by torchlight running towards me. It didn't take me long to recognize him, either.

"Prince! How did you get down here?" He embraced me tightly.

"Never mind that. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine… but," I stopped. I had about a million questions for him and they were all trying to come out at once.

"What?"

"… Darkly… where'd he go?" I questioned, curiously eyeing the small torch in his hand. The Prince only pointed to his temple in response.

"Apparently he knew you were in trouble before I did. I only regained control a few minutes ago." There was a moment of very awkward silence as my mind wandered back to our fight earlier. I'm almost certain he was thinking the same thing. But luckily enough, he decided that now wasn't the time and took my hand. "Come on, there's a path leading back to the surface. Let's get out of here while those Hunter's are distracted!" I just looked at him, then over to the Hunters, whom were still struggling and failing to win their battle. Everything they did was useless against the beast and by the looks of things, they were running low on manpower. I kinda felt a little bad for them…

"Naomi! Let's hurry!" the Prince pulled my arm a little to get my attention. I looked back to him. I could leave right now with him… I had the chance to run away and hide again… I could leave those Hunter's for dead and find another hole to crawl into… Now was the time. What was holding me back?! "Naomi, what is it? Come on, hurry!" It was then that I caught sight of something glimmering on the Prince's tunic. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a stain. …No… Could it be…? Oh my God, it is.

"…Blood." I murmured quietly. He'd done it. The Dark Prince had stayed behind to fight the commanding officer of those Hunters. And he'd won. Apparently, Sora had no idea. My gaze fell to the ground as something clicked in my head. Even if they were after me, those Hunters… they were still just men. Like me. I was just a girl with wings and some special powers. I could think, I could be swayed, and most importantly, I could die. I felt pain. I bled. I bruised. I was just as mortal as a human being. And so were they.

"Naomi? What's wrong? There's no time!" the Prince coaxed, anxious to leave. I just shook my head.

"No," I said simply, my eyes never leaving the ground.

"What?"

"This is wrong."

"What are you talking about? We have to leave now before—"

"I have to help them!" Before even I knew what I was doing, I broke out of the Prince's grip and burst into flight. Not a single though crossed my mind except that I had to help Aaron and his pals as best I could. Even if it meant dying in the process. I was just… the right thing to do. I didn't hear the Prince yelling at me, nor did I recognize the danger of the situation. I just flew full speed towards to monsters head, drew back my fist, and then… "HEY, STUPID!"

I'm not sure what happened then, but I know that when the monster recovered from my punch, there was a large glowing hole right smack in the middle of his forehead. The colossus roared in pain, flailing its arms around, trying to ease the pain I had dealt. The entire structure of the old ruins seemed to shake from the noise, but that didn't stop me. I darted downwards and dealt another devastating blow to the ancient creature, then another, then another. The whole time, my heart was racing. All I could think about was how I had to stop this thing from hurting anyone else.

After a good few blows, I flew back up to the things head and stared into its red eyes. Oh, I'd pissed it off all right. It didn't matter. It was nothing but a killing machine, put there to brutally murder anyone or anything that tried to pass. I had to put an end to that. I had to…

My arms were outstretched. My resolve was firm. And my whole being was strangely calm. I felt good. Better than I had in months. I took a deep breath, and then… blackness.

Everything was blurry when I opened my eyes again, but after a few blinks, things came back into focus and I quickly recognized the faces of the Prince of Persia and Aaron. I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it again when I couldn't think of anything to say.

"Are you… all right?" the Prince asked slowly with a strange tone of voice. I took in a very deep breath.

"I… I think." I shifted a little to test how far my limbs were willing to move. " Where'd that train go?" Aaron just stared at me.

"I can't believe you're making jokes after… after _that_!" he exclaimed. "What the hell was that?!"

"What was what?"

"That… I don't even know how to describe it!" As my brain came more and more back online, I noticed that he seemed a bit… unnerved. I slowly sat up and rubbed my temples and the Prince came and sat next to me.

"Naomi… do you even remember what happened?" he asked slowly. I thought for a moment.

"Uh, no?"

"No?!" Aaron exclaimed loudly in disbelief, "How can you not remember it?! You only took out that huge monster like it was nothing!" I blinked.

"I… I did what?"

"Nay, you really don't remember that? It was… incredible." The Prince seemed speechless. Well, that's definitely a first!

"No, it wasn't incredible! It was… I don't know… there is no word to describe that!"

"Aaron, calm down. Your yelling is not helping my headache any," I grumbled. He just looked at me, then sighed.

"You know," he began, kneeling next to me, "I think I finally know why they want you so badly."

"Huh? Who?" I replied.

"The Council. You at the top of their hit list, you know. Now I think I know why. With the kind of power you just displayed…" He shook his head. "No doubt they'll really start worrying now that you've managed to take out that… thing."

"Hey, that reminds me," I interjected, quickly changing the subject, "Why was that thing down here anyway?"

"This is a forbidden zone," the Hunter replied.

"Forbidden?" the Prince inquired curiously.

"Well, that explains the feeling of 'get-out-or-I-eat-your-face.'" I said jokingly.

"These old catacombs are the ruins underneath Azad," Aaron continued, "That monster was put here to guard something deep within these old rocks. I don't know what, but I've got my guys looking right now." Then, as if on cue, another voice chimed in.

"Hey, Aaron! I think we found something!" one of the Hunters shouted. The three of us just looked at one another before Aaron stood up to see what they'd found. But there was no way in hell I was going to just let him run off on his own! No, I'd gotten this far, may as well see what was down here while I'm at it!

"Hey! I'm coming too!" I declared, jumping to my feet and hurrying after him.

"Hey!" I heard the Prince cry in protest, "What about me?! I can't fly like you can!" I turned to him.

"What, you wanna come too?"

"Yes!" I rolled my eyes and maneuvered behind him and after a great deal of effort I got both of us in the air. Believe me, I was _sorely_ tempted to accuse him of too much comfortable palace living.

Moments later, we touched ground again with everyone else. Though there was an uneasy silence when they saw me, Aaron quickly broke the ice.

"What is it? What'd you all find?"

"There's a door here," one of them replied, " can't open it, though. It's sealed shut."

"Sealed shut? There must be something really important in there, then," Aaron mused. "Best we just leave it alone if that's the case." I couldn't help but get a sense of deja vu as I examined the door in question. I'd definitely seen it somewhere before. But where? Come on, brain, get with the program already!

"You know what it looks like to me?" one of the Hunters said, "It kinda looks like one of those old tomb entrances they use for dead Council members."

"But why would they put a tomb down here in this godforsaken place with a thirty story high monster to guard it?"

"I dunno, but something tells me we've seen more than enough and we should probably get the hell out of here!" Then it hit me. I let out a loud gasp and ran to the door.

"Naomi, what is it?"

"Now I remember!" I exclaimed, "This door… I've seen it before!"

"What? Where?!" Aaron demanded.

"In that book!"

"What book?"

"Never mind the book, what the hell is it?"

"This door," I started, "It's the Tomb of Apollo!" Then the fireworks.

"What?!"

"It actually exists?!"

"What's it doing down here, anyway?!" Then Aaron's voice cut in.

"Now I know I've seen too much! I say we get the hell out of here!" But then, before we could all agree, in came the ever curious and naïve voice of the Prince.

"What's all the bickering about? It's just a tomb," he said loudly so everyone could hear him. Of course, that only cause even more chitchat, this time centered around the Prince's ignorance.

"All right, boys, be nice!" I interrupted them, returning to my lover's side. "He's human. He doesn't know anything about our world, so cut him a break, ok?" I looked at him.

"It's an old story up in the Heavens. According to the legend, Apollo was one the High Councilor and one of the greatest who ever lived," I explained. Then Aaron interrupted.

"Until one day, for whatever reason, he went mad with power. They say it took the rest of the Council to take him down. And when they did, they hid his body in a secret location and threw away the key."

"That's the myth," I finished, and looked back to the door. "But I thought it as just a child's fairytale. I never thought it actually existed!"

"I think we should keep this quiet," Aaron said, smoothing out his red hair, "Now that there's no guard here, anyone could come here. Best if we keep this between us."

"Yeah, good idea," I agreed and so did the others.

"Good. Now that that's cleared up, we have another issue to address," and he looked directly at me as he said that. "Naomi." I just stared blankly. I'd kinda hoped he'd forgot about that.

"Y-yes?" I latched onto the Prince's arm and began to slowly move behind him.

"You're a wanted woman."

"Uh…"

"And us being Hunters, well,"

"Er…" By now the Prince was giving him a death glare, but went ignored.

"But that's just it… After what happened… I can't bring myself to arrest you." I poked my head out from behind the Prince.

"Huh?"

"It's my job, but knowing that you just saved our lives," he looked off to the side. Smiling, I lifted up the Prince's arm and ducked under it so I could stand in front of him.

"So then… how about you just let us go and that's that?" I happily suggested, hoping that he would just let us go about our merry way to a new hiding place. But sadly, that was not going to happen. I came to that conclusion when Aaron sighed heavily, as if at a loss for what to do.

"I can't do that, either. We found you, a wanted criminal, chased you into a forbidden zone and watched you destroy that tomb's guardian. If we went back empty handed after all that's happened, well," he left it at that.

"Oh, well, I guess that is a problem." There was a long silence as we both tried to think up some alternative that wouldn't end up with one of us in hot water. But suddenly, out of nowhere…

"I'll go with you," the Prince said to Aaron with a firm tone. Both Aaron and I looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"What?" I said stupidly. He just stepped up beside me.

"Naomi has been through enough hell as it is, between running for her life and losing a child. All of that is my fault." Aaron didn't say anything, and I was pretty speechless myself. He continued, "I was the one who pressured her to break that law in the first place. I was the one who hid her all this time… everything that's happen can all be credited to me. Not to mention I also murdered your commander." He paused to push me back behind him. "Arrest me in her place."

"Prince…" I said softly, in complete disbelief. Aaron considered this a moment, but after seeing the Prince's firm resolve, he motioned to the other Hunters.

"You heard him, boys." They seemed reluctant, but came over. The Prince turned back to me.

"Sora…" I said quietly, but he put his finger to my lips to silence me. unters quick

"Don't worry about me. I've been stuck in a prison before. I'll be fine." I was at an utter loss for words, and I was on the verge of crying. He was actually, willingly, going to go to prison in my place. Even after that huge fight we'd had earlier about Edan… In the end, I threw myself into his embrace and squeezed the life outta him.

"I'm sorry," I whispered pitifully. "I'm sorry I called you a man-whore." He chuckled.

"I'm sorry too… for everything."

"It's alright… So what if you ruined my life? I love you."

"And I love you."

"**Oh, this is so romantic that I just want to **_**throw up**_**!" **I immediately yelled in surprise and jumped back about five feet.

"What? What is it?!" The Prince exclaimed.

"I heard him!"

"You what?"

"Darkly! I heard him just now!" He looked at me a moment.

"He… says you're bluffing."

"But I…"

"I don't know what you two are going on about, but we really have to go," Aaron interrupted. The Prince and I just looked at each other, but finally decided it was time to leave. I just looked away when they arrested the Prince. I didn't want to watch. But that was when I got my final surprise for the day.

"Aren't you coming, Aaron?" one of the Hunters asked.

"No, you guys go on up to the surface. I'll catch up."

"Suit yourself."

"Oh, wait! Red, throw me that extra set of wings, will ya?"

"Sure thing." I sighed when I heard wings, knowing they were taking the love of my life off to when may as well be his death.

"Naomi," Aaron said, and sat next to me. I only made a noise, since my thoughts were still on the Prince. "Listen, I… I am sorry for all of this." I didn't reply. "…I know I shouldn't do this, but I'm going to help you."

"How?" I grumbled.

"Well, being a Hunter, I do have to keep tabs on certain places. Azad is no longer a safe place for you, and neither is Babylon."

"And what do you suggest?"

"…India." I looked over at him.

"India? Why India?"

"I think you should be able to hide there, at least for a while. And according to some gossip I've heard, there are some job positions open in the palace. If you could land one of them, it would definitely help more than hurt."

"Okay. But with my crap sense of direction, I'll get there in about… eighty years."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're an Angel, what do you need a sense of direction for?" At this, I stared at him like he'd grown an extra head.

"Are you kidding me?" I cried, "I can't fly! They'll catch me in two seconds!" But he only smirked.

"Maybe so, with wings like those." He then produced a tarnished looking Angel Charm. "But with these, I think you'll have a better chance. Keep this safe for me, will you?" He dropped it in my hand while I searched my brain frantically for something to say that wouldn't come out like a bunch of meaningless babble. "Now come on, let's get back to the surface."

And so one again I found myself on the road, running for dear life, but this time incognito as a Hunter Angel. As I followed Aaron back to the surface, I thought back on the nine months or so I'd spent at Azad. All the trouble I'd gone through in Babylon. Everything. My only choice now was to go to India like Aaron had said and wait things out. Maybe come up with some kind of plan. But this time, I was in it alone.

**The End…?**

* * *

Kiri: Well, this one was definitely a pain in the ass to get out, but what can I say. I SUCK AT BATTLE SCENES!

Dark Prince: Obviously.

Kiri: Shut up, you! you're in jail with Princey! No talking!

Dark Prince: ...

Kiri: That's better.

Naomi: Well, great! Now that you have killed off my son, and pretty much everyone else around me, what will you do to further make my life miserable?

Kiri: Ah! I haven't killed the Prince, have I? Or your mom! Or Jericho! Or the King! Or Gabby! Or-

Naomi: ALRIGHT! enough!

Kiri: Spoil sport. Anyway, part four of this lovely tale of love and loss is on the way. I still don't have the entire chronology in order yet, but I've got my top technicians working around the clock!

(cue voices heard in background: "Holy crap, its on fire!" "Put it out! Put it OUT!" "OH GOD It's trying to eat me! HELP!" "I don't get paid enough for this!")

Kiri: That's the spirit, boys! Also, I can't think of a good title... does anyone have any suggestions? I've got a few, so I'll probably put up a poll in my profile or something... and I believe that's about all for now. Well, Well, (singing) So long, farewell, until we meet again...!


End file.
